Iraqi officials urged to find own solutions

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Maj. Tom Clark, head of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division’s infrastructure coordination team, talks about Baghdad projects with Salah Mehdi Mohammad, director general of the Rashid Beladiya. U.S. advisers have been working with local leaders like this public works manager to prepare them for the day when the Iraqis must stand on their own.


Iraqi officials urged to find own solutions
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, November 14, 2008

BAGHDAD — It’s the regular meeting of the essential services committee in Baghdad’s Rashid district, and the topic today is trash.

The men, officials in various local governments, want to clean the streets, but they don’t have the money for the equipment. So they do what Iraqi leaders have done for most of the past five years: They turn to the Americans.

"Our budget is just limited, not enough for this campaign," one member said. "If it is the Iraqi government (that must help), it is going to take a long time."

The American advisers tell them that’s not going to happen and then return to quietly observing the meeting from the background — content to let the Iraqis solve the problem on their own.

Massive infrastructure projects, business incentives and military training have attracted much of the attention directed toward Iraq’s reconstruction. But with the clock ticking down on America’s time in Iraq, advisers are laboring to ensure ground-level politicians and technocrats are ready to run the country on their own.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58805