In Iraq, authorities have reinstated twenty thousand former army officers dismissed after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, as a gesture for reconciliation ahead of the general elections early next month. According to reports, the action is designed to allay some of the bitterness that still rankle Iraq, years after the Bush administration first made the controversial decision to dismantle Saddam Hussein's four hundred thousand-strong army. The move is widely seen as a key factor that fueled a Sunni insurgency that broke out later that year and still claims lives in Iraq. Jobless and angry, some from the old army took their expertise in explosives, urban warfare and military tactics to the insurgency, seeking an income for their families or revenge against the Americans and their Iraqi allies.