posted April 14, 2003 at 7:52 p.m. MDTNation Building In Iraq [FindLaw's Writ] - "Future Plans And Problems For the Postwar Period"
[this is a substantial description of Bush's "Future of Iraq Project."]
"The project has involved working with free Iraqis, experts and knowledgeable persons outside Saddam's grip. They have been assisting in addressing seventeen areas that will be crucial to a postwar Iraq: Transitional Justice, Public Finance, Democratic Principles, Public Health and Humanitarian Issues, Public Outreach, Water, Agriculture and the Environment, Economy and Infrastructure, Local Government, Defense Policy, Oil and Energy, Education, Anti-Corruption Issues, Civil Society--Capacity Building, Building a Free Media, Return of Refugees and Displaced Persons, Foreign Policy, and Preservation of Iraq's Cultural Heritage."
[...]
America's Checkered and Uneven History of Nation Building - The United States has a long history, but a mixed record, of building other nations. Clearly, our greatest successes are Japan and Germany - not to overlook the Marshall Plan's positive impact on all the European nations.
But in recent times, particularly in the decade since the end of the Cold War, we have failed. As one observer noted: "We said we'd bring order to Somalia, but we left chaos. We went to Haiti to restore democracy, but left tyranny. We intervened in Kosovo to create a multiethnic democracy, but we may become embroiled in renewed strife and bloodshed." To this list must be added Afghanistan, where we are failing terribly at present.
Postwar Plan Worries Legal Community -
"Iraqi Lawyers, Judges Object to Interim Authority, Propose Rules for Elections"
"A group of exiled Iraqi lawyers and judges yesterday expressed concern about the Bush administration's plans for creating an interim authority in postwar Iraq and said that anyone appointed to serve in a transitional government should be barred from running in the country's first elections.
"We are concerned about the [way] that the reconstruction efforts and a post-Saddam civilian authority is being handled," said Sermid D. Al Sarraf, an Iraqi American lawyer from Los Angeles.
[...]
He also said the group believes that the interim government should be made up of "technical people," rather than political activists, to ensure that they are working "strictly to serve the country and not for political ambitions." Sarraf said the group's opinions had been formally communicated to the State Department.
Mohamed Al Jabiri, another participant in the workshop and a former Iraqi diplomat who was jailed by Hussein for two years, said that the United States "must be very careful about any moves to establish the civil and political system in Iraq." He said that "we hope the Pentagon will listen to the State Department . . . that has the knowledge about what is going on in Iraq and how to handle the situation."
The Pentagon and the State Department have clashed over how to create a transitional government in Iraq at war's end. The Pentagon has proposed a civil administration composed of U.S. citizens who would report to a military governor, as well as an interim political authority made up of exiled Iraqis. The State Department is wary of some of those exiled leaders, who have lived outside Iraq for decades, and prefers a larger role for the United Nations."
U.S. `viceroy' no stranger to Iraq - "Ex-general to rule post-war nation"
"Aid organizations have complained that making them operate under the wing of man who once wore a military uniform and will answer to U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks will complicate the task of providing vital humanitarian assistance.
At the United Nations, which worries it will be cut out of a major role in Iraq by Washington, some diplomats are suspicious of Garner's military past, his defence industry links, and his reported favouring of the exiled Iraqi National Congress opposition group as a force for a future Iraq.
[...]
Garner's formal title is director, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Post-war Iraq, or ORHA, the Pentagon-based agency charged with initially running a post-Saddam Iraq, including managing its oil riches.
News reports prefer shorter titles, variously describing him as Iraq's president-in-waiting, a viceroy, a proconsul, a king, and even as the "sheriff of Baghdad."
[ ... "British and Australian officials will also have places on the team, but are a minority." ... description of team members; Gen. Buck Walters, retired Gen. Bruce Moor, ormer U.S. ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, George Ward, Lewis Lucke, Michael Mobbs, James Woolsey ... ]
Garner is a friend of U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of the administration's main hawks.
[...]
Garner went on to serve in the "Star Wars" strategic missile defence program and retired from the army in 1996 as assistant vice chief of staff, with the rank of lieutenant-general. He has since been president of SY Coleman, a defence contractor based in Arlington, Va., that specializes in missile defence technology. He is on a leave of absence from that job.
Garner, a Florida native, was fixing his boat deck when the call came to turn his attention to rebuilding Iraq, the Orlando Sentinel reported last month. "I'm going to be away for a while," the newspaper quoted him as telling a family friend. "I have to do a little work for Donald Rumsfeld."
