Turning Point

The Iraqi election might have given the beleaguered rebuilding effort a needed boost.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Bostick has a keen sense of the historical moment. The West Point and Stanford University-educated Army engineer was on assignment in Berlin in 1989 when Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall, the very architecture of the Cold War. "I was able to take a sledge hammer to that wall," Bostick recalled in an early-February phone interview from Iraq, where he leads reconstruction as commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' Gulf Region Division and serves as military deputy to the Iraq project and contracting office. "I didn't think in my lifetime I would have the opportunity to do something so significant again."

In Bostick's view, such an opportunity came two months ago, when millions of Iraqis went to the polls in defiance of terrorists and insurgents intent on disrupting elections. "The election was every bit as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall," he says. "The people of Iraq surprised a lot of people everywhere."

The unexpectedly high election turnout demonstrated Iraqi determination to take on the complicated and dangerous tasks of rebuilding and governing the fractured nation. That determination, Bostick says, is creating new momentum for reconstruction projects by bolstering Iraqis' confidence in the future.

"It's a risk for [the Iraqis] in some areas to work on these construction projects. But they keep coming at it. The biggest thing we've seen since the election is even more excitement, a strength in numbers," Bostick says. "There's a greater willingness to step out and take over as much of the reconstruction as they can."

In December, Bostick says he had about 11 Iraqis working directly for him, but in the past two months, that number has grown to nearly 300, and he plans to hire more, he says. "Every time they walk through the gate, they're taking a risk," he says of Iraqis' willingness to work inside the fortified area in Baghdad known as the Green Zone. Because the Green Zone encompasses the U.S. embassy and military offices and Iraqi government offices, those entering the area at surrounding checkpoints are frequently targeted by insurgents. Even employees within the Green Zone are vulnerable, a fact that was brought home Jan. 29 when insurgents fired a rocket into the U.S. embassy, killing Navy Lt. Cmdr. Keith Taylor, 47, a contracting officer, and Army civilian Barbara Heald, 60, a finance officer. Taylor and Heald were working late in the project office on the eve of the election when they were hit, Bostick says.

When Bostick took over the post in June 2004, there were 230 reconstruction projects under way in Iraq, ranging from restoring complex water and electrical systems to completing relatively small building jobs. Today, nearly 1,800 projects are in the works, he says.

Insurgents and terrorists have greatly hindered reconstruction over the past 18 months by intimidating Iraqi and foreign contractors whose skills and labor are vital on major projects and by sabotaging completed work. As of Dec. 31, 2004, 232 civilians working on U.S. contracts in Iraq had been killed, according to a Jan. 30 report to Congress by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Charles Hess, director of the Iraq project office, told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference from Baghdad in January, "The insurgency also impacts the ability of us to produce the commodities necessary so that the work can be done. For example, when the insurgents damage oil pipelines so that electricity can't be produced, that curtails the power to the branch plant, so that you can't produce concrete."

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Congress has appropriated $24.1 billion for Iraq reconstruction. By the end of December, nearly $16 billion of that total had been obligated and nearly $7 billion spent-about 28 percent, Bowen reported to Congress. Reconstruction officials have been widely criticized for taking excessively long to approve reconstruction projects and make contract awards. Of the $18 billion appropriated by Congress for Iraq reconstruction in November 2003, about $10 billion is under contract, according to Bill Taylor, director of the Iraq reconstruction management office at the U.S. embassy in Iraq. The office has until Sept. 30, 2006, to spend the remainder, which Taylor says he expects will happen sooner. Those contracts now employ about 108,000 Iraqis, he says.

In recent months, reconstruction officials have shifted some effort away from huge infrastructure projects, such as restoring the electrical grid across the nation, toward smaller projects that will employ more local Iraqis and show tangible results more quickly. "Instead of working on large generation projects that will take a lot of time to design and build and bring online, we are focusing on hooking up businesses and homes-the distribution of electricity-which also has the advantage of being able to be done by Iraqis, Iraqi firms," Taylor says.

U.S. officials have focused most closely on projects in areas where recent fighting has been heaviest as coalition forces have cleared or tamped down insurgent activity in Najaf, Samarra, Sadr City and Fallujah. The idea is to give ordinary Iraqis a stake in their future by providing more employment opportunities and improving living conditions. In Fallujah, contractors are building a sewage treatment plant-the first in the city's history. In Sadr City, Bostick says, there are 18,000 Iraqis employed on various reconstruction projects, giving them an economic incentive to rebuff the insurgency. "There are some people on the fence, but most would rather pick up a shovel and work," he says.

Bostick is on his second tour of duty in Iraq. While he is now focused on rebuilding Iraq, his first tour as assistant division commander with the 1st Cavalry Division, from August 2002 to April 2004, was focused on destroying remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime. Both tasks are essential for American security, he believes.

"Except for being with my family, I wouldn't want to be anyplace else," he says.

The Bill Payers

As of Dec. 31, about $60 billion had been provided for Iraq reconstruction and relief.

*Funds pledged by countries and international organizations at the Madrid International Donors Conference for Iraq Reconstruction in October 2003.

Source: Special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction