Stupidity in itself sacking people who knew the local infrastructure and how it worked. Iraq like Germany, you in effect had to be a member of the ruling party to get on, that doesn't mean you are a torturer or corrupted, just trying to live a daily life for your family. By removing those people chaos of not being able to run water and power brings the population to its knees and trouble flares when people cannot feed their family.
Your opinion in my view is totally correct, unless you give people hope of a better life in that situation you negate the reason for war from the start and has been proved caused a humanitarian disaster.