Water, power, and now ice

It was one thing the Americans had not thought of: Ice. The first team of American administrators to set up shop in devastated Iraq came to ...

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It was one thing the Americans had not thought of: Ice. The first team of American administrators to set up shop in devastated Iraq came to Umm Qasr and summoned prominent citizens from the town. To start with, the Americans said, give us a list of your priorities. They fully expected numbers one and two on the list — water and electricity. But number three, ice, came as a surprise.

An ice-making factory was once one of Umm Qasr’s big industries, and the descending summer heat has made ice a coveted, precious commodity, especially in homes without refrigerators. And so US officials got their first lesson in how to rebuild Iraq. ‘‘The point is you let them make their priorities,’’ retired Army General Jay Garner, commandant of the reconstruction effort, said later. ‘‘We’re notorious for going in and telling people what to do.’’

Garner in Baghdad, Iraqis sceptic

BAGHDAD: Jay Garner, the retired US General overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction arrived in Baghdad on Monday to see for himself the devastation suffered by the capital, and promised to work all-out to repair the damage.He visited a hospital ransacked by looters, and an abandoned sewage treatment plant. Asked what the greatest challenge was, he said: ‘‘Everything is the challenge’’.
But not all were convinced.

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‘‘I want to cry, because these are only words,’’ said a doctor who gave her name as Iman. ‘‘If they give us anything it is not from their own pockets. It is from our oil,’’ she said.
Standing in the rain outside one of Hussein’s Baghdad palaces, Falah Salim had a sobering message for Garner. ‘‘I have lost everything. My job, my house, my furniture,’’ said Salim, his wife Awatif gently weeping at his side. A microbiologist, he was forced out of his home in Kirkuk by Kurdish fighters. Now he is registering with the US Army, hoping he or his wife, a trained electrician, will be given work rebuilding the capital. ‘‘We are sharing a house with 25 others,’’ he said. ‘‘We need a home, jobs, water, electricity. We need everything.’’ (Reuters)

With numerous mis-steps, the United States has embarked on the torturous, costly task of creating a new Iraq — re-shaping the government, repairing the infrastructure, reordering its economy. In addition to the physical and the institutional, US planners must confront deep psychological and cultural realities.

Umm Qasr is the test case. Although the town’s small size and ethnic homogeneity make it easier to tackle than most of the rest of Iraq, it is here that the US plan is being put into practice. So far, Garner’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, or ORHA, roundly has been criticised. It is an occupation regime dominated by US military officers, who outrank veteran diplomats with extensive experience in the region; the group has been less than forthcoming in outlining its plans, sowing suspicion. Besides, its arrival in many parts of Iraq might turn out to be too late: Shiite vigilantes are seizing control of parts of Baghdad, while exiles are installing themselves as rulers in other areas.

Umm Qasr was the first to fall to invading allied forces. Its experiment in self-government began more than a week ago when the Americans met with leading citizens and then anointed 10 who volunteered to form a town council. ‘‘It was a brave thing to do,’’ Garner said of the volunteers. They risked reprisal from still-lurking Baath Party officials and clandestine paramilitaries. The council’s meetings are held behind closed doors for now. The group made its first public appearance this week, 10 men emerging hesitantly from their makeshift office. They spoke of restoring water and electricity and creating jobs, and of freedom. But they seemed nervous and stilted, cutting their words short, and, when pressed by reporters, retreating back into the hotel and down a darkened hallway off the lobby.

Outside the well-guarded hotel gate, children begged for water. Women held slips of paper bearing telephone numbers. They wanted someone with a phone to call distant relatives to let them know they had survived the war. Thousands of refugees from Basra have arrived in search of work that do not exist. With no cargo ships in port, no produce trucked from distant farms, the price of food has risen. Abdulmahdi, the de facto mayor, said Umm Qasr needs internationally funded projects to employ locals. (LAT-WP)