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A group of prominent intellectuals, commentators and policymakers are calling on President Obama to act more assertively in Syria to help end the violence there and remove President Bashar al-Assad from power. SNIP The letter was organized by the neoconservative groups Foreign Policy Initiative and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and signed by 56 mostly conservative foreign policy experts and commentators, including Liz Cheney, Karl Rove, Randy Scheunemann, former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer, Commentary editor John Podhoretz, Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and ex-New Republic editor Martin Peretz. Full letter text and signatories after the jump.

March 19, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Facts for FeithCPA history. By L. Paul Bremer III A recent article in the Washington Post previewed the forthcoming book by former undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith. In his book Feith apparently alleges that I was responsible for what he calls the single biggest mistake the United States made in Iraq. He claims that I unilaterally abandoned the president’s policy, promoted by Feith and others before the war, to grant sovereignty to a group of Iraqi exiles immediately after Saddam’s defeat. On March 16, Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute elaborated on this...

The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just whose brilliant idea was it to disband the Iraqi army? The former U.S. boss of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, says President Bush knew about and supported his plans to dissolve Saddam's military, according to letters he released to the New York Times yesterday. Annoyed that Bush was quoted in a recent book as suggesting that he had gone a bit Rambo out in the desert, Bremer disclosed his spring 2003 correspondence with the president. The impetus for Bremer's action...

<p>Once conventional wisdom congeals, even facts can't shake it loose.</p> <p>These days, everyone "knows'' that the Coalition Provisional Authority made two disastrous decisions at the beginning of the US occupation of Iraq: to vengefully drive members of the Baath Party from public life and to recklessly disband the Iraqi army.</p>

Once conventional wisdom congeals, even facts can't shake it loose. These days, everyone "knows" that the Coalition Provisional Authority made two disastrous decisions at the beginning of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: to vengefully drive members of the Baath Party from public life and to recklessly disband the Iraqi army. The most recent example is former CIA chief George J. Tenet, whose new memoir pillories me for those decisions (even though I don't recall his ever objecting to either call during our numerous conversations in my 14 months leading the CPA). Similar charges are unquestioningly repeated in books and articles....

L. Paul Bremmer THE recent debate set off by the publication of my book about my time in Iraq has shed more heat than light.... And while I had concerns about the quality of Iraqi forces two years ago, their training has since been revamped. Today they are playing an increasingly important role in defending Iraq. Despite the missteps and setbacks, there is little question that, thanks to efforts by the American-led coalition, enormous political and economic progress is being made in Iraq today. ... Iraqis voted in the country's first genuine elections. Then they wrote and approved a new...

L. Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, urged U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to increase U.S. postwar troop strength in the country, but his pleas were ignored, the former diplomat said. In an interview on NBC Television broadcast Sunday night, Bremer said he sent a memo to Rumsfeld suggesting that half a million soldiers would be needed, three times the number deployed by the Bush administration. "I never had any reaction from him," Bremer told Brian Williams". Bremer, on a media blitz in connection with release...

...Despite the amazing progress in Iraq in two short years, some armchair experts carp that we should have moved even faster. Frankly, it's hard to understand what they are thinking.... From the outset, the Coalition recognized that democracy requires more than just elections. We judged that we had a special obligation to help Iraqis design a political and legal structure to guide Iraq's journey from tyranny to democracy. The result, after three months of intense negotiations and compromise, was the interim constitution. This revolutionary document addresses three crucial areas. First, the Coalition insisted that checks and balances guard against the...

Has anyone ever said something about you that wasn't true? Something that, if people believed it, would significantly damage your reputation? How would you feel if you saw that falsehood printed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times? Would it make things right if the paper later retracted the false statement — with a brief correction buried inside the paper? For some, this is not a hypothetical question. Just ask L. Paul Bremer III, Antonin Scalia or the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Last year, The Times suggested on Page 1 that Bremer was a coward: "L. Paul...

(AP) President Bush awarded the nation's highest civilian honor Tuesday to three men central to his Iraq policy, saying they had played "pivotal roles in great events." Mr. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retid Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer. Franks is a retired four-star Army general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He didn't decide until last summer to endorse Mr. Bush's re-election, but then spoke on the president's behalf at the Republican National...

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT: GWB awarded the nation's highest civilian honor -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- Ambassador L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer, former CIA Director George Tenet, and retired U.S. Army General Tommy Franks. QUOTE OF THE DAY: General Tommy Franks was raised in Midland, Texas -- nothing wrong with that. (Laughter.) I didn't know him then, but Laura and he went to the same high school. In those days, some people in Midland wondered about Tommy's future. It sounds familiar. (Laughter.) At a recent high school reunion, Tommy's old principal told the General, "You weren't the brightest bulb in the...

Bush has chosen retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The president will hand out the awards at a White House ceremony Dec. 14, press secretary Scott McClellan said.

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) is awarding the nation's highest civilian honor to three men central to his Iraq (news - web sites) policy, the White House announced Thursday.   Bush has chosen retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The president will hand out the awards at a White House ceremony Dec. 14, press secretary Scott McClellan said. Franks is a...

Bremer: Bush Is Still Right About Iraq Apparently tired of how the media establishment and its pet John Kerry have distorted his recent remarks on Iraq, former administrator L. Paul Bremer III has a column today in the worst offender, the New York Times. Among his points: # "The press has been curiously reluctant to report my constant public support for the president's strategy in Iraq. "I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush.” # "The president...

What I Really Said About Iraq The recent coverage of some remarks I've made about Iraq has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. By L. PAUL BREMER III In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq...

n recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations and that we did not have enough troops on the ground to accomplish that task. The press and critics of the war have seized on these remarks in an effort to undermine...

In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations and that we did not have enough troops on the ground to accomplish that task. The press and critics of the war have seized on these remarks in an effort to undermine President...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context. In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations and that we did not have enough troops on the ground to accomplish that task. The press and critics of the war have seized on these remarks in an effort to...

Former viceroy L. Paul Bremer did 14 months of hard service in Iraq, so it is a special shame to see that he is now squandering that legacy by blaming others for what's gone wrong there.... Mr. Bremer revised his remarks: "I believe that we currently have sufficient troop levels in Iraq." ...Trouble is, we haven't found a single other senior official involved in the war or its aftermath -- in or out of uniform -- who attests to Mr. Bremer's version of events. "I never heard him ask for more troops and he had many opportunities before the President...

America's former proconsul in Baghdad delivered a damning critique of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq yesterday, saying the US had made two grave errors of judgment in the early days of the war. Paul Bremer, who was America's most senior official in Baghdad until the handover last June, said the US committed two major blunders which compromised the course of events in Iraq: it went to war without enough troops and it did not contain the looting and violence after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. "We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of...