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By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff
Tuesday, May 20, 2003

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The ultimate authority for the U.S. military occupation of Iraq is Army Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan. The top civilian authority is a former State Department official named L. Paul Bremer III. Bremer, who replaced retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as head of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance ((ORHA), is supposed to administer the country on an interim basis and to provide humanitarian aid, rebuild damaged infrastructure and help establish a representative government.

Bremer reports to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and his top aides, Deputy Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Under Secretary for Policy Douglas J. Feith. As the Post reported in early May, "control of the reconstruction agency remains firmly with a tight-knit group of Pentagon officials and handpicked former generals."

What are they doing?

For administrative purposes, Iraq has been divided into three sections: the north, the south and metropolitan Baghdad. There are coordinators for each region, plus U.S. officials running each of 23 governmental ministries.

These jobs are just beginning to be filled. The city of Baghdad was originally placed under the control of Barbara Bodine, a State Department official, but she was transferred less than a month later and has yet to be replaced. Southern Iraq will be administered by Roger "Buck" Walters, a retired military man and Texas businessman. W. Bruce Moore, a career military man who saw combat in Vietnam and Somalia, will run northern Iraq.

Walter B. Slocombe, who worked in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, will oversee the transition of the Iraqi defense ministry. Peter McPherson, former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a friend of Vice President Cheney, is the "financial coordinator" for ORHA. Former U.S. ambassadors Robin Raphel and Timothy Carney are in charge of trade and industry. The foreign affairs portfolio is held by David J. Dunford, a former U.S. ambassador to Oman.

How are they doing?

The biggest challenge for U.S. authorities in Iraq has been simply to restore public order and public services. Widespread complaints about the slow pace of recovery efforts prompted the Bush administration to bring in Bremer as the top civilian in Iraq. At his first press conference in mid-May, Bremer painted a promising picture. "This is not," he declared, "a country in anarchy."

What about the oil?

The U.S. is seeking a United Nations resolution granting it broad control over the country's oil industry and revenue until a permanent, representative Iraqi government is in place. Philip J. Carroll, a former executive of Shell Oil Co., has been selected to lead the rebuilding of Iraq's petroleum industry.

What is the role of the U.S. military?

The post-combat force is big and growing. As a result, commanders of the 160,000 U.S. soldiers in the country are playing a leading role in governing the country. U.S. commanders appointed the mayor of Najaf, the Shiite holy city in the south. Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division serves as "a viceroy" for the northern Iraq, according to a recent Post story. In mid-May, 18,500 additional U.S. soldiers moved into Baghdad, operating checkpoints, protecting Iraqi facilities, conducting manhunts and patrolling the streets as a quasi-police force.

What about the Iraqis?

For now, Iraqi leaders serve in an "advisory" capacity to the U.S. officials. The Bush administration has said that an interim Iraqi authority will eventually be established to take over from the Americans. On Bremer's orders, members of the Baath party have been banned from government jobs.

Among the Iraq people, many say they would like to see the U.S. forces leave the country as soon as possible. This feeling is especially strong in southern Iraq where most of the people are adherents of the Shiite branch of Islam. U.S. officials have expressed fears that the Shiite clerics may support the establishment of an Iranian-style theocracy hostile to U.S. interests. But representatives of the four supreme Shiite leaders in the country have expressed cautious support for a temporary U.S. presence, mixed with distrust of American motives.

Who are the Iraqis who will take over?

That is not yet known. In early May, Garner identified five likely leaders of an Iraqi interim government. One was Ahmed Chalabi, a former banker who heads the Iraqi National Congress and is a favorite of the Pentagon. Two others were well-known Kurdish leaders from the northern part of the country: Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Another possible Iraqi leaders is Abdul Aziz Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite group that fought Saddam Hussein from exile in Iran. A fifth came from a secular group called the Iraqi National Accord.

Opposition figures have voiced concern over the U.S. intention to push back the creation of an interim authority and, once established, to delegate to it powers far more modest than those leaders had originally expected.

How long will Americans run Iraq?

Unknown. Garner spoke of transferring authority to an interim Iraqi government within 90 days. Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz has said it may take longer than six months to do so. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said recently that "anyone who thinks they know how long it's going to take is fooling themselves."

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Direct Link:
--http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15601-2003May20.html

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