Retired U.S. general arrives in Baghdad to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq

Associated Press | April 21, 2003

[HAL9000]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 21, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Retired U.S. General Jay Garner, who is overseeing Iraq's reconstruction after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, arrived in the Iraqi capital Monday.

"What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do," Garner said after arriving at Baghdad airport from Kuwait.

Garner said his priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity "as soon as we can," and acknowledged that the job would take intense work.

"Everything is the challenge," he said.

Garner said he aimed to get the job done and leave as soon as possible, but declined to give a timeframe.

"We will be here as long as it takes. We will leave fairly rapidly," he said.

In Baghdad, Garner plans to visit a primary water treatment plant, a main power plant and the Yarmuk hospital.

Garner heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, which was set up to help rebuild Iraq and prepare for an eventual interim government made up of Iraqis.

Garner was accompanied by his British deputy, Tim Cross. His initial team of about 19 civilian administrators is to grow to about 450 over the next week.

Iraqis have criticized U.S.-led forces for failing to swiftly restore order in the city and elsewhere in Iraq, where looting and disorder broke out in the wake of Saddam's fall. Many cities also suffer from power and water shortages.

Garner will report to U.S. General Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Garner last week went to the southern city of Nasiriyah for a meeting with opposition figures, but the Baghdad visit was his first to the capital since U.S. forces took the city.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[American Soldier]

WHERE THE HECK is Abizaid? Did we not have an olive-skinned, Arabic-speaking general that was supposed to be advising over there?

Even if Garner is a better decision-maker, wouldn't it be better propaganda for us to put Abizaid in a civilian suit and have him giving speeches about the future of Iraq in Arabic?

And why do the people on Fox news keep calling him General? Whatever his retired rank, that's completely inappropriate in this context. Just as you wouldn't call Powell a "general" if you were addressing him on the floor of the United Nations, it is not helpful to remind people of Garner's previous military affiliation at this time. We're claiming this isn't an occupation, remember?

[green team 1999]

freedom bump

[EaglesUpForever]

Even if Garner is a better decision-maker, wouldn't it be better propaganda for us to put Abizaid in a civilian suit and have him giving speeches about the future of Iraq in Arabic?

I don't know, perhaps it would make Abizaid a target for terrorism, and it would look like a superficial attempt to give what is definitely a US operation an "Arab front." Better to be up front about it, the USA is managing the transition to a new government. Hopefully many involved will not only speak Arabic but will in fact be Iraqi citizens. But the US is leading the transition: at some point their government will be purely Iraqi but this intermediate step is necessary and we shouldn't pretend it's an Arab or Iraqi effort in this phase.

I agree that Garner shouldn't be called "general"...

[HAL9000]

I think Garner reports to Abizaid and Franks.

It seems the decision has been made to have civilians oversee the formation of the new Iraqi government - perhaps to help win diplomatic recognition from other countries.

[wretchard]

Garner ran the relief effort in Kurdistan, where he reportedly did so well that he landed the current job. This means he is a good administrator and politician, apart from whatever combat qualifications he had, and that's what is wanted for this job.

Jay Garner's non-Arabic ethnicity is probably an asset. Abizaid could never be regarded neutrally. He would belong to some "tribe" in the minds of the Arabs. Garner, on the other hand, is clearly an outsider who would treat them all impartially.

[goldstategop]

Yep... and the best way to prepare for a handover would be to have someone with experience in setting up a functioning government. If Garner could get the job done in Kurdistan, he can get it done in Iraq. Let the critics carp.

[American Soldier]

Yeah, I suppose you are right overall. I just got a psyched up when I read these glowing bios of Abizaid. I suppose being brought up here would've made Abizaid pretty foreign to most Arabs anyway. Comparing Kurdistan to the rest of Iraq, I'd say that Garner has a pretty good resume in this area.

[Orlando]

He should of been in Baghdad last week, what took him too
long ?. The Problem of power, Water,Hospital supplies, and food supplies needs to fixed as soon as possible.
Why is it, that power, water is only working 40-50% of Baghdad after 2 weeks ?.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Cause we bombed them real good.

[Young Rhino]

Always enjoyed watching him play a p.i. on The Rockford Files. Glad to see that he is keeping busy. :-)

[mikenola]

Have there been any articles the give details as to *why* the power is out? Did Saddam sabotage substations and generation plants or something like that?

I know in Basra there was just a master switch that needed to be thrown back on.

Just wondering why it's taking so long to get the power back on.

[Wright is right!]

"Have there been any articles the give details as to *why* the power is out? Did Saddam sabotage substations and generation plants or something like that?

It appears that the distribution grid was chopped up pretty well by some henchmen with bolt-cutters - the kind that can slice right thru thick electrical distribution cable. This happened right before our troops reached Baghdad.

Re-stringing all the electrical lines is a time-consuming procedure - and one that requires materials and equipment not normally carried by a military exped force. SadMan or someone else in his regime rightly figured that the cutting of power lines would take the longest to repair and would be the easiest to accomplish. A power plant that's been shut off can be restarted. A power grid that's been cut has to be replaced. Look what happens when there's an ice storm, and how long power restoration takes. And that's WITH all the equipment and cable present.

I doubt that our bimbing campaign had much at all to do with the power outage. In fact, I figger SadMan was counting on us to take out the power, and when we didn't, he did it himself so the blame could fall on us. It's the way he did everything else, and he has the Media thoroughly on his side to aid in the deception.

Michael

[mikenola]

Hey thanks for the reply.

There isn't a great deal in the press , but I did find this article with some more detail:

Baghdad waits for darkness to lift
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — Iraqi technicians and U.S. Army engineers moved closer to bringing electrical service back to Baghdad on Sunday, another step in the effort to restore this beleaguered city to normal life.

Iraqi workers repair electricity cables in Baghdad.
By Hussein Malla, AP

Technicians shouted in triumph Sunday afternoon when the 400-megawatt Baghdad South power plant started receiving electricity from two plants outside the city.

Once the plant is generating its own electricity, it can begin supplying power to homes and businesses in at least one part of the city. Baghdad has been without service since the power was cut — it isn't known by whom — during the U.S. assault 21/2 weeks ago.

Baghdad residents are desperate to see the lights turned back on. In a city without electricity, thugs own the night, and ordinary Iraqis cower indoors after dark.

The few shops open here shut their doors when darkness falls. Armed brigands, some drunk on potent local spirits, roam the city looting and robbing. In one west Baghdad neighborhood last week, a man staggered through the streets, a machine gun blazing in each hand.

"I'm scared when the darkness comes," said Salemi Slamin, 37, a housewife. "I told my husband to buy us some machine guns."

Without electricity, Iraqis also can't refrigerate meat and are forced to go out every day to buy scarce groceries. There's no air conditioning to relieve heat that is uncomfortable now and will be unbearable by summer. Temperatures already are in the 80s.

A few Iraqis have bought generators to supply their own power. Some hotels and shops also run generators a few hours at a time. But there usually isn't enough to power elevators.

During the fighting in Baghdad and the public disorder that followed, power lines were cut, electrical towers were toppled and substations were damaged. Pipelines that carried natural gas to fuel electrical plants also were severed or shut off. Getting them going again will take time.

Turning the lights back on hasn't been as easy as some had expected. "Some higher-ups thought we could flip a switch and have everything running," said U.S. Army Maj. Clint Pendergast, operations officer for the 3rd Infantry Division's Engineer Brigade.

The system that provided power to Baghdad through natural-gas pipelines and hydroelectric plants outside the city suddenly shut down during the fighting. Some believe that the Iraqi government pulled the plug; others say a sophisticated U.S. explosive fried the power grid. U.S. military officials deny that charge.

Army engineers hoped to get the power back on within a day or two. "We're close," Pendergast said. He wouldn't predict precisely when electricity will return and noted that technical snags have dashed his hopes before.

On Saturday, for example, technicians were able to restore electricity for several hours on the transmission line linking the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, and the Baghdad South plant, but they couldn't sustain the flow. During the brief period when power was restored along the Samarra-to-Baghdad corridor, some Iraqis celebrated by firing weapons into the air.

Efforts to restore power also have been undermined by the collapse of Iraq's telephone system. On Sunday, when they were trying to figure out what happened to the Samarra power supply, workers in Baghdad couldn't just call their counterparts there to find out what was causing the problem. An engineer had to spend hours driving the 70 miles to Samarra to find out what happened and then driving back with his findings.

On top of those problems, Iraq's power equipment is unpredictable; it was manufactured in places such as Ukraine and Yugoslavia. And the electrical system already was suffering from a shortage of spare parts and poor maintenance before the war.

Army engineers try to look on the bright side. U.S. forces deliberately spared Baghdad's power plants during the bombing campaign. That was a change from the 1991 Gulf War, when the U.S. military targeted the city's utilities and left them useless for months.

"The power stations are in suitable condition," said Husan Obedi, regional director of the public utility office in central Iraq. "Our problem is transmission lines and some substations."

U.S. engineers also have been heartened by the cooperation they are getting from Iraqi technicians. Most are showing up for work with no guarantee they will be paid. Of course, the Iraqis have a huge incentive to get the lights back on: the prospect of a return to normalcy, or something like it.

It was reported late Sunday night that at least one area of Baghdad had its power supply restored. Residents told Reuters news service that lights came back on in parts of the city east of the Tigris River.

"We feel now that things have begun to get back to normal after two weeks of blackout," said Akram Ali, 32, a shopkeeper. "I'm really happy."

The failure to fully restore power to the capital's 5 million people has not instilled confidence among Iraqis in the U.S. occupation.

"We'd see a little hope if the power came back," housewife Slamin said.

[Theodore R.]

Can this general do as good of a job in Iraq as the late Douglas MacArthur did in Japan from 1945-50? In his book "Leaders," Richard M. Nixon declared MacArthur the "father of modern Japan."

[B. A. Conservative]

This marks the beginning of the end of UN Supervised Iraqi Oil for food and medicine program and the beginning of the story of Koffiee Money unlimited.