Hmmm... - Word has it

Hmmm... - Word has it that an entire Iraqi division, the 51st, has surrendered en masse in the Basra area.

On CNN, one talking head was commenting on the processing of these huge groups of prisoners. According to the head, the officers will be allowed to keep their sidearms after the grunts are disarmed. They're allowed to stay in their barracks, with a small group of Americans/Brits/whomever to watch over them. The US is trying, the talking head says, to avoid having camps full of POWs to clothe, feed and secure.

Before the war, many pundits said it'd take hundreds of thousands of workers to rebuild Iraq. So here's what I'm wondering; might the US be keeping the Iraqi regular army (as opposed to the Repubican Guards and Special Guards) in some state of being?

Think about it - in Iraq today, there are no institutions other than the Ba'ath Party and the military. The Ba'ath's days are rather strictly numbered, of course - but I'm wondering if there might be a benefit to keeping the one, solitary nationwide non-Ba'ath institution going as both a coherent, relatively disciplined labor force on the on hand, and a unifying piece of psychological and social infrastructure on the other?