US Military's No. 2 In Iraq Says Jobs, Services May Be Key
BAGHDAD (AP)--The U.S.' outgoing No. 2 commander in Iraq has said that curbing unemployment and improving services would help reduce the violence in the country, warning that military muscle can't win the war alone.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, in the last days of a second Iraq tour, also drew a picture of daunting challenges facing the U.S. military in Iraq as it strives to keep up with a constantly changing enemy whose knowledge of the terrain and culture give it an edge over the Americans.
At times during his farewell news conference Tuesday, Chiarelli - in charge of day-to-day combat operations throughout Iraq - sounded exasperated, almost despairing, over what he said were misperceptions that U.S. forces were fighting a conventional war or that they can achieve victory without improvements on other fronts.
"I know everybody wants us to charge on out there and make everything OK," he said. "But you cannot if you don't get those other things moving. I don't know why it's so hard to get people to understand that," he said, alluding to the need to create jobs and improve services in Iraq.
"I also get frustrated at times that everybody compares us to other conflicts we have fought, like somehow there is a defined enemy out there, a group of individuals that if you can just go out and either kill, capture or put in jail or do whatever, everything will be all right," he said. "I don't believe that, I don't believe that."
"There is no doubt in my mind that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that we are bringing over here are trained for the fight at their hands. Is it tough? Yeah, it's really tough, it's very tough," he said.
Chiarelli's assessment of the U.S. military's predicament in Iraq came as President George W. Bush was continuing efforts to formulate a new approach for Iraq following the release last week of a report by a bipartisan committee that described the situation here as "grave."
"We don't have to drive unemployment down to 4% like in the United States, that's not what I am talking about. We don't have to have 24 hours of electricity in Baghdad," he said. "But if we can increase the power in Baghdad back to 12 hours a day, it would be huge."
With reduced unemployment and fewer power cuts, he said, "I think we will see things here change in ways that are hard to believe right now when you see the level of violence out there."
Chiarelli's notion that the fight against the Sunni-led insurgency and efforts to disband Shiite militias would have a better chance of success if the use of force went hand-in-hand with stepped up economic activity is not new.
The U.S. military has tried this, without much success, from as early as 2003 - a time when many were upbeat about Iraq's future after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, with foreign aid money flowing in and a free-market economy swiftly taking hold after decades of state control and crippling U.N. sanctions.
For its part, the U.S. military has given out hundreds of contracts to local firms to repair schools and overhaul medical facilities, power transformers and roads. But with widespread corruption, mismanagement and relentless insurgent attacks, little has changed on the ground.
Nearly four years after Saddam's ouster, Iraq's economic woes are staggering.
Unemployment is thought to be anywhere between 20% and 60%, inflation above 50% and more than 1.5 million Iraqis, mostly professionals, have fled abroad, according to the Iraq Study Group report and U.N. figures. Lengthy power cuts are routine, fuel shortages are chronic and health care is close to collapse.
"Putting young men and middle-aged men to work will have a tremendous impact on this level of violence we are seeing in and around Baghdad and in other provinces," Chiarelli said.
He said that because of military sweeps, life is returning to normal in some areas of the capital, including the mainly Sunni districts of Dora and Amariyah.
"People are out, about, walking around, markets are open, fruit stands are open and commerce is bustling," he said.
Residents of Dora say the area has been quiet in recent weeks, but that they are too afraid to leave their homes after dark and that a Shiite enclave in the district is frequently shelled by mortars fired from Sunni areas. Amariyah is quieter, but bodies of apparent victims of sectarian violence are found there almost daily, according to residents.
Violence in Baghdad districts often goes in cycles, with turbulent areas becoming quiet during and immediately after large-scale counterinsurgency operations -only to flare up again when the focus of the U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies shifts elsewhere.