Posted on 08/02/2007 5:18:17 PM PDT by SandRat
BAGHDAD — Military officials discussed current efforts in Iraq at the Combined Press Information Center Wednesday.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman; Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business transformation, and Philip Reeker, counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, discussed economic and political efforts underway to assist the government of Iraq.
Bergner opened the conference by talking about the building “tactical momentum” in the sixth week of the surge. Operations from Iraqi and Coalition forces made progress in a number of fronts, he said.
“We continue to target the networks and leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the special groups, and are steadily chipping away at both sets of extremists,” Bergner said. “We are seeing progress not just in the number of terrorist leaders that are captured or killed but also in the courage of the Iraqi people, their support for their security forces, and their purposeful stand against violence.”
Bergner said tips from the Iraqi people are instrumental in the current success against insurgents. Last month, Coalition forces received around 23,000 tips, which is about four times as much during the period last year.
Coalition efforts to reach tribal leaders in Iraq are also showing progress, Bergner said.
“In just the past three weeks, four different communities north and west of Baghdad have joined other communities in declaring their opposition to al-Qaeda and pledging to work with their countrymen to stop the violence,” Bergner said.
Information from Iraqis and cooperation with tribal leaders has direct correlation with a recent jump in weapons cache discoveries, Bergner said. Coalition forces have discovered more weapons stockpiles in the past six months than they have all of last year.
“We are achieving that progress because of the breadth of our operations, because of our focus on extremist’s sanctuaries and operating bases, and most importantly because of the precise information from Iraqi citizens,” Bergner said.
Brinkley provided an initial progress report for Coalition efforts in industrial and economic revitalization. Since last fall, economic teams have been working in stabilized areas of Iraq to restore economic activity.
“Our focus has been on several areas and most visibly the effort to restore production operations in the large former state-run industries of Iraq,” Brinkley said. “And we've undertaken this in partnership with our command and in partnership with the provincial reconstruction team leadership in the provinces.”
Brinkley highlighted the restart of four operations: the Iskandariah industrial works, a clothing factory in Najaf, a ceramics factory in Ramadi and the state-run factory for leather industries in Baghdad. Several other businesses are slated to reopen across Iraq in the next two weeks, Bremer said.
Reeker spoke about the importance of provincial reconstruction teams, small civilian and military units that assist local governments in Iraq, which he said boaster moderates, promote reconciliation and support counterinsurgency operations.
“The emphasis we've had is on shaping the political environment rather than on building infrastructure,” Reeker said. “Really the PRT is designed to kick-start the developmental processes and short-term successes that can give momentum for longer term development.
The Iraq PRT program supports decentralization of government services which vitally important we believe and in accordance with the 2005 referendum on the Iraqi constitution which mandates more provincial powers.”
Reeker said that helping to provide local governments the ability to deliver essential services to Iraqi citizens. This, in turn, reinforces stability in the area.
“In Ninawa, for instance, the PRT there helped establish the Mosul branch of the central criminal court of Iraq which has already tried over 170 terrorism cases and brought 96 militants to justice,” Reeker said. “Also with the assistance of the PRT, the Ninawa provincial government obtained 241 million dollars from the central government for reconstruction and infrastructure improvements.”
• Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers found a large weapons cache near Falahat, Iraq July 30.
God bless our brave troops and President Bush.
Since we invaded the per capita monthly income of Iraqis has risen form $10/mo to $200/mo. It is now roughly comparable to that of India or Cuba.
God bless our brave troops and President Bush.
bump
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