Report: U.S. policy led to Iraq insurgency

WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. method of pacifying Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall actually may have spurred an anti-American insurgency, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The setup of the post-Hussein U.S. presence undercut the mission, the newspaper said, citing "a review of thousands of military documents and hundreds of interviews with military personnel."

The hazy chain of command, with no one individual in charge of the overall U.S. effort, led to frequent clashes between military and civilian officials, the Post said.

A CIA station chief in Baghdad argued with Paul Bremer" class="tpstyle">L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run occupation agency, that Bremer's first order, "De-Baathification of Iraq Society," would backfire.

"By nightfall, you'll have driven 30,000 to 50,000 Baathists underground," the CIA station chief wrote. "And in six months, you'll really regret this."

He was proved correct, the Post said. Bremer's order, along with a second order that disbanded Iraq's 350,000-strong national military and the national police a month after the regime collapsed, created a new class of disenfranchised, threatened leaders, the newspaper said.