It's true about the services being above pre-war level overall. Our guys have been working steadily across Iraq - with the help of the Iraqi people - for two months now.
The Coalition has been doing awesome work. The press basically ignored the detailed daily CENTCOM reports. The press doesn't ask about the Coalition successes at press conferences, and they seldom inform America or the world about how welcomed the Coalition troops are by the VAST majority of Iraqis.
SOD Rumsfeld explains it well at this May 9 press briefing with Gen. Franks:
Q...And some U.S. officials are quoted as saying that U.S. planning and execution of the postwar reconstruction were inadequate. Do you think that any mistakes were made in this area? And what is your assessment of the current state of the reconstruction effort?
Rumsfeld: Who are the officials?
Q: They're unnamed.
Rumsfeld: Ah. (Laughter.) That's nice. (Laughter.) What you're seeing in the press and on television are slices of truth. You're seeing that someone is harmed, or in a particular location the water isn't back on, or in a different location the power is only intermittent, or is in 80 or 90 percent of the city and not 100 percent of the city. All of that's true. A good deal of it, of course, was also true prior to the war. And it seems to me it's important to have that in mind.
We keep tracks, where we look each day at the major cities -- I don't now how many, 20?
Franks: Twenty-seven.
Rumsfeld: Twenty-seven cities, and track them and see how they're doing with respect to security, how they're doing with respect to water, how they're doing with respect to power and what have you. And each day it gets better. We use red for a situation that is worse than the beginning of the conflict, and green when it is better -- the same as prior to the conflict, and blue when it's better than -- the situation for the people of the country is better than it was at the beginning of the conflict, and a white for not observed. The white has pretty well disappeared now.
Franks: It has, yes, sir.
Rumsfeld: And now we are able to observe and have some sense in every portion of those 27 cities, every portion of the country.
The reds have disappeared as of this morning. There are very few blues, but there are some blues. And there are amber, or yellow, for --
Franks: -- getting better --
Rumsfeld: Getting better but not up to the green level. This is a reflection of the seriousness of purpose of General Franks and his team. And as he said in his remarks, things are, in fact, getting better every day in that country. That does not mean that people cannot continue to write articles or see television clips of something that isn't perfect, or isn't as good as it was, or isn't better than it was. That is probably also true if one looks around any city in the United States or Western Europe, that things are -- we find things are not perfect. You'll see slices of truth that suggest that there are problems.
My impression of what's taking place is that the folks in General Franks' organization and in General Garner's organization have done an outstanding job and are continuing to make things better in almost every corner of that country, every week and every month, and that's a good thing.
The other thing I'd do, just to put a little perspective on it, is it's been 51 days since the war started. I mean, ask ourselves, each of us, what have we accomplished in 51 days? No, that's embarrassing, I shouldn't do that to you! (Laughs.) That would be wrong. (Laughter.) But 51 days is not very long. And I think that the reality is that it is a very difficult transition from despotism and repression to a freer system. It's untidy, it is -- it is -- there will be fits and starts, and a couple of steps forward and a step back. There'll be bumps along the way.
And it strikes me that what it requires is for people to be realistic; to look at other countries that have made that transition and ask how was that done, how long did it take, how difficult was it, how untidy was it? And recognize that this country does not have a history of representative or democratic systems; it's going to take some time and it's going to take some patience. And we accept that, and we're there to create an environment where that process can take place. And we have patience, and we accept the fact that it's untidy. And I hope that others can recognize that and accept it and put it into some historical context.