"When the history of the occupation of Iraq is written, there will be many factors to point to when explaining the post-conquest descent into chaos and disorder, from the melting away of Saddam's army to the Pentagon's failure to make adequate plans for the occupation. But historians will also consider the lack of experience and abundant political connections of the hundreds of American bureaucrats sent to Baghdad to run Iraq through the Coalition Provisional Authority."[cit]

According to Newsweek: "In the seven years that have passed since the Iraq invasion, no one has seen his reputation tumble lower than L. Paul 'Jerry' Bremer III ... As invasion turned into occupation, and occupation into an out-of-control insurgency and sectarian bloodshed in the mid-to late 2000s, much of the blame was allotted to Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority. Starting with a pair of initial catastrophic decisions—first ordering a blanket de-Baathification of the country, then disbanding the Sunni-led Iraqi Army—Bremer fomented the Sunni uprising and never understood the country he was supposed to be running, the critics said."[cit]