As is so often the case, the American armed forces step in to get the job done, when others cannot or will not. What's so impressive about what's going in Iraq is their ability to improvise and adapt to circumstances in the theater of operations. Some decry "lack of planning," but I see leadership at every level.
With civilian aid experts still in short supply or scared off by the security threats... the American military continues to shoulder the biggest effort to help a nation restore its civilian society since the end of World War II.Posted by Alan at December 30, 2003 12:08 PMYoung soldiers plucked from their combat specialties are playing critical roles in areas in which they have no formal training, from running cement factories to rebuilding sewage systems.
But in the aftermath of the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government, no organization except the military had the resources and organizational wherewithal to deal with issues from setting up local governments to rebuilding roads. Since late April, the 101st Division alone has spent more than $40 million on 3,900 projects in northern Iraq.
Eight months after the United States declared the end of major combat in Iraq, the military is handing over more and more responsibilities to Iraqi officials, who are also working with civilians reporting to L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American civil administrator in the country.
But military commanders here expressed frustration that most international aid organizations have not returned in force since the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad last summer.
"The N.G.O.'s have been a disappointment," said Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Division, speaking of nongovernmental organizations. "Don't get me wrong, the truck bomb at the U.N. headquarters was horrific. But they seemed as if they were very, very quick to bail out of here, compared to the risks they have run in a variety of other missions."