article_snippet: The decision, taken in May 2003, "immediately created a large pool of unemployed and armed men who felt humiliated and hostile to the U.S. occupiers," as James P. Pfiffner put it in 2010.
article_snippet: President George W. Bush told President George W. Bush biographer Robert Draper in 2006: "The policy had been to keep the Iraqi army intact; didn't happen.
article_snippet: The reasons have been disputed ever since.
article_snippet: The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, alluded to the dilemma when in Baghdad on Monday.
article_snippet: Kurdish officials told CNN last month that the longer the battle for Mosul is delayed, the tougher the battle for Mosul will be.
article_snippet: Kurdish officials claim that Kurdish officials cannot maintain the siege of the city of Tikrit on three sides indefinitely.
article_snippet: Christopher Harmer of the Institute for the Study of War says Christopher Harmer of the Institute for the Study of War believes a majority of Iraqis want to see a majority of Iraqis country survive; far fewer want a return to sectarian conflict akin to civil war.