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.
The capital remains in a state of anarchy, with most of the city a no-go area at night. The former telephone exchange was on fire yesterday after being looted again, and there were big blazes elsewhere round the city. One of the few aid convoys to trickle through to the city in the past few days was hijacked and the vehicles stolen.
Electricity is intermittent, with most of the capital in darkness every night. Rubbish is piling up in the alleys and main streets, many shops are still shuttered, sanitation generally is poor, and the provision of public services is patchy. Only a few people have returned to their jobs.
The process of trying to establish a provisional Iraqi government is also proving troublesome.
Held captive
US army Major John Cornelio, a spokesman for Orha, said Ms Bodine planned to leave Iraq last night. He did not give a reason for her departure. She is to take up a post in the state department in Washington. She told the Washington Post: "I'm not leaving with the sense that we've done everything we could have done, but I'm also not leaving with the sense that it's been a failure."
Ms Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen, has been a victim of Iraq before: she was on assignment in Kuwait before the 1991 Gulf war and was held captive for 137 days by Saddam's invading forces.
Her relations with Gen Garner are reported to have been strained, and she was also said to have been unhappy at the dispatch of Paul Bremer, a former US diplomat, to oversee the political process. He is due in Iraq this week.
Britain has sent John Sawyer, an ex-ambassador to Cairo and former Downing Street policy adviser, to work alongside Mr Bremer. Mr Sawyer, who has been designated special envoy to the Iraq political process, said he wanted a new Iraqi government that was broad-based and credible.
Gen Garner promised that power would be handed over to an Iraqi provisional government by the end of the month, and set a deadline of June 15 for the full restoration of public services. He has been cooped up for most of his stay in Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound on the banks of the Tigris, cut off by heavy security from the plight of the city's residents.
There has been growing resentment among residents over the failure to restore order and basic services. The US, unaccountably, has been unable to stage any big public relations coup since the fall of Saddam to win over hearts and minds, such as a huge convoy bringing in desperately needed medical supplies.
Most of the contractors appointed to carry out reconstruction work remain in Kuwait, saying Baghdad is too unsafe.
The Pentagon and state department have been at loggerheads over the running of Iraq. The defence ministry, having won the war, is reluctant to hand over power to another department, while the state department regards the Pentagon as lacking the necessary diplomatic, and political skills for nation-building.
Although Mr Bremer's appointment was hailed as a victory for the state department, he shares a similar view of the Middle East as the Pentagon hawks, such as the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz.
At a briefing in the grounds of the newly reopened British embassy in Baghdad on Friday, Major General Tim Cross, deputy to Gen Garner, made a passionate defence of Orha's record so far, saying that security was not a matter for Orha, but for the US-British forces.
He said the management of a political process was always difficult, but that about 40% of electricity had been restored so far, and that the water in the capital was good, though sanitation was not.
The impact of his statement was undermined by frequent bursts of gunfire rolling round the city throughout the briefing.