There's plenty of speculation about what, exactly brought about the departure of Jay Garner, the retired general who led the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid--and consequently led Iraq--for exactly three and a half weeks.

• Author: Threadgill, Susan
• Position: Who's Who

There's plenty of speculation about what, exactly brought about the departure of Jay Garner, the retired general who led the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid--and consequently led Iraq--for exactly three and a half weeks. Clearly, the utter chaos in which Iraq remained during his month on the job precipitated his replacement, in mid-May, by retired State Department official L. Paul Bremer. Yet many inside the Pentagon aren't sure that Garner and his staff deserve the blame. "I think [Garner] was given the job but not enough assets to do it right," said one retired Army officer who served with Garner in Operation Provide Comfort, the mid-90s effort to protect Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq.

But Iraqi citizens may not absolve Garner so speedily. They watched as the general and his staff--chiefly Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to...