SITREP:IRAQ

Editor's Note: This is an open letter from U.S. Army Maj. Eric Rydbom in Iraq to the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shoreline, Wash. Rydbom is Deputy Division Engineer of the 4th Infantry Division.

It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what's really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn't sell.

Let's start with electrical power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. Just 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 megawatts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70 percent complete.

Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in very short supply or not used at all. When chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing.

So some people got pool water to drink and some people got water with lots of little things floating around in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50 percent or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don't have the metering problem solved yet ( ... but again, it's only been 45 days).

How about oil and fuel? Well the war was all about oil wasn't it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people! They have no other income, they produce nothing else. Oil is 95 percent of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it must sell oil.

The Refinery at Bayji is [operating] at 75 percent of capacity producing gasoline. The crude pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June). LPG, what all Iraqis use to cook and heat with, is at 103 percent of normal production and we, the U.S. Army, are ensuring it is being distributed fairly to all Iraqis.

You have to remember that only three months ago, all these things were used by the Saddam regime as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped, LPG pipelines and trucks stopped, water was turned off, power was turned off.

Now, until exports start, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people. Crude oil is being stored and the country is at 75 percent capacity right now. They need to export or stop pumping soon, so thank the U.N. for the delay.

All LPG goes to the Iraqi people everywhere. Water is being purified as best it can be, but at least its running all the time to everyone.

Are American soldiers still dying? Yep, about one a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents, but dead is dead.

The general Iraqi population isn't shooting at us. There are still bad guys who won't let go of the old regime. They are Ba'ath party members (Read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who have known nothing but and supported nothing but the regime all of their lives. These are the thugs for the regime who caused many to disappear in the night. They have no other skills. At least the Nazis [in Germany] had jobs and a semblance of a national infrastructure that they could go back to after the war, as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc. These people have no skills but terror. They are simply applying their skills ... and we are applying ours.

There is no Christian way to say this, but they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster. Our troops are shot at literally everyday by small arms and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). We respond. One hundred percent of the time, the Ba''ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick.

The most amazing thing to me is that they don't realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on fixing things more quickly and then leave back to the land of the Big PX. The more they shoot at us, the longer we will have to stay.

Lastly, all of you please realize that 90 percent of the damage you see on TV was caused by Iraqis, not by us and not by the war. Sure, we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000 lb. laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace), [but] he had plenty to spare.

But, any damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was all caused either by the Iraqi Army in its death throes or from much of the Iraqi civilians looting the places.

We can and do now, but 45 days ago, the average soldier was fighting for his own survival and trying to get to his objectives as fast as possible. He was lucky to know what town he was in much less be informed enough to know who owned what or have the power to stop 1,000 people from looting and burning a building by himself.

The United States and our allies, especially Great Britain, are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world's chopping block to free an entire people from the grip of a horrible terror that was beyond belief.

I've already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death - bottom line, who cares? This country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway. We have probably destroyed more weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the U.S. Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (remember, this is a country the size of Texas), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here. If we find it great if we don't, so what?

I'm living in a "guest palace" on a 500-acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the countryside five miles away like I have and see all the families of 10 or more, all living in mud huts and herding the two dozen sheep on which their very existence depends ...then tell me why you think we are here.

WMD is an important issue. We have to find them wherever they may be (in Syria?), but that is not our real motivator. Don't let it be yours either.

Getting back on the grid

Author: David Enders (Bulletin Staff)

After security, one of the most common complaints of postwar Baghdad residents has been unreliable electricity.

"Why is the electricity only on eight hours a day?" one resident asked last week. "In 1991, Saddam had the electricity on sooner than this, and all the power stations were bombed."

A myriad of reasons exist for the delay in returning Baghdad to its prewar capacity, when residential areas generally received 20 hours of electricity each day. Power lines were damaged by coalition bombing and the subsequent looting further damaged lines and generation and distribution stations.

The American effort to restore electricity in Baghdad began on April 12, three days after troops entered the city. Baghdad received enough power last week to satisfy current demand - which will rise with the temperature - for up to 14 hours a day. That has left some questioning how concerted the American effort really is, pointing out that none of the power stations had been bombed during the invasion.

"In 1991, the damage was much greater because the damage was concentrated not only on the substations but the power stations," said Adnan Wadi Bashir, who worked as a power generation and transmission engineer for the government for 24 years. "Most of the attacks were on the transmission lines, and the repair of these is much easier. We restored part of the power in 1991 within six weeks of the ceasefire and we supplied the whole Iraqi system without any shortage in five months. The job now could have been finished within a month" of April 12.

Starting literally from scratch, engineers in 1991 managed to generate about 1000 MW of power six weeks after the war ended, Bashir said. Last week, nearly eight weeks after the American effort began, about 3450 MW were available countrywide, 1000 MW less than were available before the invasion .

An insurmountable task

US Bgdr. Gen. Steven Hawkins is in charge of the campaign to repair the city's power. When his mission is fulfilled, he will officially turn over control of the job to Peter Gibson, a US civilian from the Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority and Karim Hassan, a prewar official in the Electrical Ministry who has been selected by Gibson as the Iraqi liaison.

"We'll have 16 hours by one July," Hawkins said during a recent media trip to the Baghdad South power plant.

The plant is a hodgepodge of cobbled together equipment, mostly obsolete, and underscores the most serious problem in Iraq's electrical infrastructure - that supply for a long time has been unable to meet demand. Last summer's peak demand countrywide was 6600 MW. Most of the available power was diverted to Baghdad, leaving the rest of the country with about 12 hours per day.

As journalists toured the plant, an engineer pulled one away to ask what the general was discussing.

"We've heard from some of the commanders that we are getting new generators. We need new generators. This is a very reduced megawatt facility," the man said.

Bashir estimated that even if work began now on new power stations, it would take at least 14 months to ensure there would be enough power generation to meet countrywide demand 24 hours a day, repairs that may be necessary to the existing generators notwithstanding. Gibson agreed with that assessment.

"At least 5800 MW is needed," Bashir said, noting that demand would be about 1000 MW more than that were it not for all the buildings destroyed in the bombing.

Though engineers on the grid were aware of the deterioration of Iraq's power system before the war, a number of rumors circulated throughout the populace of Iraq to explain why Baghdad did not receive power all day long. One of the most popular was that Saddam sold electricity to Jordan and Turkey.

"How would we sell the power? There is no line," Bashir said, adding that the Iraqi border checkpoint at Trabil actually received electricity from Jordan. "There was one day power ran from Iraq to Turkey, but they never reached an agreement with negotiations on the tariff."

In the meantime

Adil Mahdi, the manager of the National Dispatch Center in New Baghdad, disagreed with Bashir's assessment the job of repairing power lines was taking too long.

"In my opinion it is the same amount of damage and not less than 1991 at all. The damage this time is to the 400 kV network, 90 percent to 95 percent of the network has been affected," Madhi said, referring to the "supergrid" that makes up the backbone of the national power grid. From the 400 kV line, the power is moved from substations to networks with a smaller capacity.

Mahdi said the damage to power infrastructure caused by looting has exacerbated the problem of fixing the lines. The dispatch center was no exception.

"All the looting happened within two days, the nights of the ninth and tenth of April. The American troops were entering Baghdad. A tank opened the door of the dispatch center and a soldier told the people 'Take your share of Iraqi oil from here,'" Mahdi said. "The looting took place under the gaze of the American Army. The dispatch center was looted, there were fifteen homes on site, for the engineers that were also looted. Even our clothes were taken. Computers, chairs, carpets, air conditioning units."

Prior to the war, Madhi's office controlled the power distribution for the whole of Iraq, connecting the three rings - north, south and central - of the 400 kV line. Last week, the north ring had been reconnected to the dispatch station, but there was still little coordination. Areas in the north and south that are connected to the grid have been receiving power for as much as 22 hours a day.

"If all governorates cooperate with me and 40 percent to 45 percent of the total system is used by Baghdad, we could provide 16 hours countrywide," Hamid said. "There is a US commander for each governorate - we must negotiate with them. Once a link has been made between the US Army and local authorities, people will follow and obey.

"Before the war, there was a shortage of power, and we are hoping to return to this state. Many lines are still under investigation, we are looking into contracting private business, we are looking at Iraqi companies, but the whole picture is unclear. On one line, more than 20 towers collapsed each at 30 to 50 tons in weight."

Contrary to rumors US forces have refused offers for help from Iraqi engineers, Madhi has received little aid.

"Bechtel gave us a questionnaire, looked around and took notes. We are still waiting for action. They came on May 27, and visited some other power stations. We received some small equipment from them and they asked for cost estimates to pay the line repair workers. We are hoping for a good response from them in the future," he said.

Attempts to reach Bechtel spokespersons for comment were unsuccessful.

Poor wages and a lack of security have also been a problem.

"There is continuous looting and vandalisation of the line. The US forces are the biggest forces in the world. This force has the ability to support us in a more active way than they are doing now.

"We can't concentrate on our work, we had 80 to 100 of our cars looted within one week."

Security is not the only problem. Workers repairing the line, who prior to the war received salaries of around $80 US each month, have so far only received emergency payments of $20 US and bonuses of $30 US. Hawkins said he expected a salary payment to be made to workers in mid-June, but that will still be less than prewar levels.

"Because the wages are low, this weakens the relationship between employer and employee, and affects the quality of the job," Madhi said. "I have no financial or administrative authority anymore."

Ripple effects

Al-Mansur Children's Hospital has received power from the national grid nearly 24 hours a day for about two weeks. Hospitals, water treatment facilities and sewerage plants have been given top priority in electrical distribution.

"We have a generator for emergencies," said Khassem Issa, a doctor at the hospital. "The power usually goes off for about two hours a day."

Issa said the generator is adequate for emergency treatment, but does not provide enough power to run the hospital's elevators, air conditioning or other heavy machines.

"The problem is not how many hours, it is equipment we can't run," he said.

Though the hospital has been able to operate, power outages at the company that supplies it with compressed oxygen have caused dangerous shortages.

"Three times we have had crises with oxygen and patients have died," said Eaman Tariq Al-Jabory, another doctor at the hospital.

There are other health concerns related to power shortages in residential neighborhoods.

"We have 260 patients (in the hospital). One hundred and fifty will be children with gastroenteritis," Al-Jabory said, attributing a large part of the problem to inadequately stored food and poor water quality in some Baghdad neighborhoods. "The water is not good because of no electricity."

The World Health Organisation administers 33 hospital in Baghdad.

"All of the hospitals in Baghdad are using generators," said WHO medical officer Muiz Al-Amin. "Now the main power is improving, it is only off a few hours a day. Only six hours it is cut."

The WHO is preparing for a spike in typhoid and cholera cases as summer heat sets in.

"You have fever, vomiting. The water supply is not good," Al-Amin said.

But perhaps most serious is the potential a lack of electricity in the summer has for fueling sentiment against occupying forces.

"The people, if there is the power, will stay home and watch TV and play Playstation. How will they act if there is no power? They will throw stones at the Americans," Bashir said.

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