9.1  |  March to 22 May 2003

and prominent at all levels of ORHA” and “unless the scoping study concludes that this

is impossible” a UK-led ORHA regional office.

217.  Steps to increase UK support for ORHA are described in more detail in

Section 10.1.

218.  On 16 April, Gen Franks issued his ‘Freedom Message to the Iraqi People’.109 The

message stated:

“Our stay in Iraq will be temporary, no longer than it takes to eliminate the threat

posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, and to establish stability

and help Iraqis form a functioning government that respects the rule of law and

reflects the will, interests, and rights of the people of Iraq.

“Meanwhile, it is essential that Iraq have an authority to protect lives and property,

and expedite the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those who need it.

Therefore, I am creating the Coalition Provisional Authority to exercise powers of

government temporarily, and as necessary, especially to provide security, to allow

the delivery of humanitarian aid and to eliminate weapons of mass destruction.”

219.  Gen Franks’ Freedom Message also contained the first public statement about the

treatment of the Ba’ath Party:

“The Arab Socialist Renaissance Party of Iraq (Hizb al-Ba’ath al-Arabi al-Ishtiraki

al-Iraqi) is hereby disestablished. Property of the Ba’ath Party should be turned

over to the Coalition Provisional Authority. The records of the Ba’ath Party are an

important part of the records of the Government of Iraq and should be preserved.

All those with custody of the records of the Ba’ath Party or the Government of Iraq

should … turn them over to the Coalition Provisional Authority.”

220.  The policy of de-Ba’athification and its implications is considered in Section 11.

US force levels

Gen Franks issued orders on 16 April to withdraw US war-fighting units within 60 days and

to use the incoming US forces for only up to 120 days, reducing the US military presence

in Iraq from 175,000 troops to 30,000 by the start of August.110

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of Combined Joint Task Force – 7 from

15 June (see Box, ‘US command structures and the SBMR-I’), recalled that Gen Franks

“explicitly stated that military leaders should take as much risk coming out of Iraq as we

did going in – which meant that we were going to try to get by with the smallest number

of ground troops possible”.

109  Statement Franks, 16 April 2003, ‘Freedom Message to the Iraqi People’.

110  Sanchez RS & Phillips DT. Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story. HarperCollins, 2008.

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