ADJUSTING TO IRAQ

 

 Editorial de  “The Washington Post” del 01.06.2003

The U.S.-led provisional administration in Iraq at last appears to making progress toward restoring order and basic services and restarting the country's economy. During the past two weeks, thousands of additional troops from the U.S. 1st Armored Division have arrived in Baghdad and embarked on street patrols; meanwhile, engineers have doubled the city's power supply, and tons of garbage have been picked up. L. Paul Bremer III, the no-nonsense diplomat who took command of the occupation nearly three weeks ago, has quickly taken decisive measures, from disbanding the Iraqi army and banning all members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to regulating firearms and other weapons. He also sensibly slowed the chaotic rush to install an Iraqi provisional government, making clear to the country that for now he is in charge. Some of his steps may prompt more disorder in the short term: Some of the violence recently directed at U.S. forces may have come from military or party officials stripped of their posts and pensions, while various would-be Iraqi leaders are angrily protesting the political slowdown. But the overall mood may have been captured by a survey recently conducted by one of Baghdad's new newspapers: Eighty-five percent of respondents said coalition forces had done a bad job maintaining order after the war; 65 percent said they should not yet leave Iraq.

Like Iraqis themselves, Bush administration officials appear to be grimly -- and belatedly -- accepting the magnitude of the challenges. "The war has not ended," said the commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, on Thursday. His statement came 28 days after President Bush declared the war over in a dramatic appearance aboard an aircraft carrier; since that day, 20 American servicemen have died in Iraq. Acknowledging the continuing security problems, the Pentagon has postponed the departure of the 3rd Infantry Division, meaning that the U.S. troop level in Iraq will remain at 150,000 for a few months at least. Mr. Bremer appears to have recognized that constructing a new Iraqi leadership that is both representative and free of Baath loyalists or Islamic extremists will also take time: "Occupation," he told The Post's Scott Wilson last week, "is an ugly word, not one Americans feel comfortable with, but it's a fact." Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has also changed his tune: Last week he published a sober article in the Wall Street Journal promising to restore order by force if necessary and acknowledging that "the transition to democracy will take time and may not always be a smooth road."

Such statements by senior administration officials, like the stepped-up efforts on the ground, are welcome, even if overdue. But it's still not clear that President Bush and his aides have fully accepted the scale of the commitment that postwar Iraq will require, or explained it clearly to the public and Congress. Officials still speak of plans to replace many U.S. troops with foreign forces this summer and to fund Iraqi reconstruction with the country's own assets or foreign donations. But only modest help is on the way from U.S. allies -- a Polish-led force scheduled to arrive next month will comprise only 7,000 troops -- and it could be years before the Iraqi oil industry generates sufficient revenue to pay for more than the basic needs of Iraq's 23 million people. The reality is that tens of thousands of U.S. troops will likely be in Iraq for years to come, and the country will not recover without extensive investment by the United States and other international donors. The administration has made a start at adjusting its policy and its public rhetoric to fit those facts -- but as the people still waiting for electricity in Baghdad would attest, it has a ways to go.