ONE OF THE ENDURING CONTROVERSIES of the American experience in Iraq has been the decision to disband Saddam’s army after toppling his regime. Current conventional wisdom holds that this was a huge mistake which accelerated the breakdown of order in Iraq. The trouble we’re experiencing building new and effective Iraqi forces is taken as obvious proof of this truth. Plus, a bonus of the conventional wisdom is that it conveniently places the blame on Ambassador Paul Bremer, who has stepped down from his post and departed the immediate scene.

President Bush’s frank assessment of the current state of Iraqi security forces at his press conference would seem to reinforce this argument. At last accepting that the simple size of the Iraqi force–formally 114,000 today–wasn’t the real measure of effectiveness, the president acknowledged that, while there were some good leaders and a number of units that were performing well, “the whole command structure necessary to have a viable military is not in place.” Bush even earned kudos from the editorialists at the New York Times for being “admirably blunt” in confronting this “sobering reality.”