Iraq's prime minister: ''You can't fix in six months what it took 35 years to destroy''
May 27, 2005

By Patrick Quinn:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, announcing plans for a massive police presence in and around the capital, acknowledged Thursday that ''you can't fix in six months what it took 35 years to destroy.''

As outlined by al-Jaafari, the plan originally called for closing all of Baghdad's entrances to catch the insurgents responsible for killing more than 620 people since he took office last month.

But, he explained to a small group of Western reporters over afternoon tea, it had to be changed after the discovery that insurgents had car bomb factories in downtown Baghdad.

''This was based on the assumption that car bombs were loaded outside of Baghdad. Then we recently discovered factories inside Baghdad, and that cars can be assembled in about one hour,'' al-Jaafari explained.

As a guard adjusted an air conditioner to cope with Baghdad's searing afternoon heat, al-Jaafari said the discovery forced a much larger plan than just setting up checkpoints along the city's 23
entry points.

Leaning forward as he sat in a heavily guarded building inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, al-Jaafari said the discovery also had a silver lining.

''I make particular reference to this one factory that had this capacity because we found it based on a tip. Tips are increasing and they are significant,'' he said. Many Iraqis have become increasingly angered with the incessant attacks.

Next week's planned operation, he added, is designed to send a signal.

''It will restore the initiative to the government,'' al-Jaafari said.

Getting the back the initiative and Baghdad's streets is important if the Shiite-led government that was announced on April 28 hopes to succeed.

Since then, insurgents have killed more than 620 people; 91 car bombings have killed at least 291 of that number and wounded another 800, according to a count by The Associated Press.

To deal with the violence, Iraq still needs the support of about 160,000 foreign troops, including 138,000 from the United States, he said.

A major part of the U.S. exit strategy from Iraq is aimed at building up an Iraqi security force capable of maintaining order and combating the insurgents.

''The key to this is the strength of the Iraqi army. There are two factors involved. First the challenge ahead of us, and second to speedily rebuild and re-equip the armed forces,'' al-Jaafari said.

Al-Jaafari said the challenge ''is not just internal but also external,'' a reference to the foreign fighters taking part in the insurgency.

He added that recruitment of troops ''was going well.''

''We want ourselves to be self-sustaining,'' he said.

But al-Jaafari would not give a timeframe, either in months or even years, when that would happen and foreign troops could begin leaving.

''It depends on status,'' he said. ''It is our security and it is not our desire to have troops here. No country wants foreign troops on its soil. We want to see them leave, but the security of our country is the most important thing.''

''We have made significant progress'' against the insurgency since the Jan. 31 elections, he added.

Iraq's people, he said, were expecting the best from their first democratically government in
half a century.

''It's not an issue of our asking them to be patient. We have to be truthful and show we are doing our best. They know we are sincere and transparent,'' he said.

''We think we can make a difference that incrementally, and over time, we can fix things. You can't fix in six months what it took 35 years to destroy.''

The creases under al-Jaafari's eyes attest to how long that road has been.

Before returning in 2003, the 58-year-old spent more than two decades in exile, mostly in Iran, leading anti-Saddam Hussein opposition forces.

One of the top leaders of the Islamic Dawa Party, al-Jaafari fled to Iran in 1980 and remained there until 1990, organizing cross-border attacks while studying Shiite theology in the city of Qom.

The Dawa was Iraq's first Shiite Islamic political party, headed by one of its most popular clerics, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, who was executed by Saddam's regime in 1980.

The Dawa uprising began in the late 1970s and was crushed by Saddam's forces in 1982. The group said it lost 77,000 members in its war against Saddam, who is a Sunni.

In the early 1980s, Dawa carried out several suicide bombings in Baghdad, and there was speculation that al-Jaafari was behind an attempt to assassinate the then Iraqi-allied emir of Kuwait. Al-Jaafari has denied involvement in the attack.

Upon his return, he became a key member of the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite-led political coalition which in turn appointed him as the choice for prime minister.

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