Special report Iraq
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Special report: Iraq
US sacks its woman in Baghdad
Washington replaces its team for the anarchy-hit capital after failures
Ewen MacAskill in Baghdad
Monday May 12, 2003
The Guardian
The US yesterday sacked one of its most senior envoys to Iraq after only three weeks, in an admission that the task of running the country is proving tougher than expected.
With Baghdad still in a state of chaos, there was a whiff of panic about Washington's removal of the top layer of its team responsible for reconstruction. There was also a hint that it is being forced to rethink its post-war strategy.
Barbara Bodine, the US coordinator for central Iraq, was ordered back to Washington, a casualty of the failure to restore law and order or basic public services to the capital, Baghdad.
She is the second senior US official to be sidelined within a week. Her partner in the country, retired general Jay Garner, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid (Orha), is also to be replaced within weeks, after a lacklustre performance. He too has only been in Baghdad for three weeks.
Washington hopes the overhaul of its team will bring a much-needed sense of urgency and focus to the reconstruction process. It originally intended to get Baghdad up and running by itself, but may yet have to seek help from the international community.
Interesting! Thx!
We sent that bitch to Iraq after the fiasco in Yemen.
Our State Dept. sucks.