Iraqi soldiers, from the 2nd Iraqi Army Division, lead the way during a medical screening that took place in the Asad neighborhood in Mosul Tuesday. The Mosul Provincial Reconstruction Team supports such initiatives as well as many others designed to rebuild the province. Department of Defense photo by Cpl. Leigh Campbell.
Provincial Reconstruction Teams consisting of civil, military, and aid organizations are working together to help Iraq become a prosperous nation.
The teams are a key component of helping Iraq rebuild, officials said.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Iraq’s third largest city. Mosul, an ethnically and religiously mixed city, where the first PRT was inaugurated in 2005.
During a Mosul press briefing this spring, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team Commander Col. Michael Shields stressed the team’s importance to the city and province.
The team has done a great job getting the provincial government out to the district and sub-district level, Shields said.
The PRTs are divided into four areas, governance, rule of law, reconstruction, and economic development.
The teams are designed to lead the effort to build capability and sustainability within Iraq’s provincial governments, eventually allowing them to function independent of Coalition assistance.
The Mosul PRT has a program called the Provincial Outreach Program, in which it goes to the remote districts, remote villages, and listens to the mayors and the prominent local leaders’concerns, he said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq in late 2005 to support the inauguration of Iraq's Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Previously, forces in Afghanistan used reconstruction teams there.
The first inauguration took place in Mosul, about 250 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Rice said the work the teams do is similar to the work Americans did to rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II.
“When the United States committed to the future of a democratic Germany in 1945, that was not a certainty. When we committed to the democratic future of Japan in 1945, that was not a certainty.” she said in her Nov. 11 speech.
“Here in Iraq, we are going to stay committed because the Iraqis -- a fine and brave, courageous people, a people of great culture, great intellectual breadth and of a great history -- are going to succeed.”
PRTs are now operating throughout Iraq.
“The PRT is important to the success of Iraq because we are part of the exit strategy,” said Col. Bruce Grant, deputy PRT leader for Ninewa. “First and foremost, for all U.S. forces and the future of Iraq, we help the government stand up, get strong, so that as we leave and fewer Coalition forces are here, they can govern on their own.”