Redstate

"This is an ancient land, but it is a new country."

By AcademicElephant Posted in War — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Yesterday I participated in a blogger conference call with Brigadier General Michael Walsh from Iraq. It was a particularly interesting opportunity since the General is, as the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Gulf Region Division, in charge of reconstruction projects. According to conventional wisdom, the failure of the US to effectively restore the Iraqi infrastructure has been one of the great "mistakes" of the post-war period. Iraqis have seen their quality of life materially diminish after the fall of Saddam, and so have turned against the "occupation" forces. There's no electricity, no water, and oil production has stagnated. Explanations for this state of affairs range from incompetence to neglect to impotence in the face of the volatile security situation. But General Walsh has a different story to tell--and one that does not dovetail quite so neatly with the known truth that Iraq is a failure. Quite the contrary, actually.

Read on...

The General started off with the startling assertion that he wanted to be in Iraq because he considered its reconstruction an unprecedented opportunity. He said that reconstructing the entire infrastructure of a country this size was a huge challenge, but that as an engineer there is no place he would rather be. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, he considers the story he has to tell to be one of success, not of failure. While he freely admitted security challenges and problems with fraud, he also said that even given these problems progress continued, and that oversight mechanisms were in place.

He then went on to detail the progress his team has made. The children's hospital in Basrah, which the Washington Post darkly hinted in the article linked above would never be completed, is on track to be completed in 2008, and will be the first new hospital constructed in Iraq since 1986. 945 out of 1045 school projects have been completed. 75% of the country has more than twice as much electricity than it had under Saddam--and here was a statistic I hadn't heard before: under Saddam, Baghdad enjoyed about 18-20 hours of electricity a day, while the provinces averaged between 2-4. Now the national average is closer to 10-12, so while Baghdad has seen a reduction, the rest of the country has seen a marked improvement in service. Furthermore, General Walsh reported that while work is ongoing to strengthen the Baghdad grid, the power supply is supplemented by a burgeoning number of private generators (I had to wonder how many of these were available for purchase under Saddam?). He also noted that the back-up power system for Baghdad will be solar--the first such system in a major city. Perhaps someone might want to alert former Vice President Al Gore about this initiative?

General Walsh was encouraging about progress in the oil industry, which is producing close to 3 million barrels a day. He said the new draft oil distribution law was "political" and so not exactly in his purview, but that it was "very significant and one of the premier pieces of legislation" that will come before the Iraqi legislature. He commended it for facilitating the flow of foreign capital into Iraq to assist in revitalizing this critical industry.

In terms of funding the GRD, General Walsh said that of the 13 billion American dollars funding this project, he had spent about 8.5 and expected to wrap up over the next 18 months. He was careful throughout to differentiate between American taxpayer dollars and Iraqi funds, which he expects to support the next phase of reconstruction. He said that there were plans to have American military advisers stay on to assist ongoing projects, but that they would be paid by the Iraqi government. Neither he nor the Iraqis expect additional US funds.

The general gave a brief but compelling closing statement that sums up both the challenges--and the opportunities--of the new Iraq:

This is an ancient land, but it is a new country. They’re still trying to figure out what it means to be an Iraqi and the ministries to provide services to their people. So this is an exciting time to be here and see the seeds of democracy grow.

"Exciting." "Grow." These positive words are not ones we typically associate with Iraq. "Failing" and "quagmire" are more the standard fare. But perhaps we are missing something that General Walsh can see. Given the incremental progress the General reported in water, energy, schools, hospitals, border projects and the oil industry, I wonder what this "new country" will look like in 18 months? Will it be the "failure" so many confidently expect? Or will it be possible then to look back with some perspective at this project and not see individual problematic trees, but get a broader view of a flourishing forest that has been patiently nurtured by men such as General Walsh?