The Marines were advised to select a group of Iraqis they thought were safe and have them pick a mayor. That was how the United States would control the process,” wrote Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainor, the authors of Cobra II, regarded as the definitive military history of the invasion. In the end, the U.S. military appointed a Saddam-era army colonel as Najaf’s mayor, as they did in cities and towns across the country. bj7
