Analysis:Garner says progress made in Iraq

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Progress has been made in reconstructing post-war Iraq but the process remains slow and will take some time, the former leader of civilian operations in Iraq told a House committee Friday.

"It is a dicey road right now, but I see things getting better," Jay Garner, former director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance at the Pentagon, told the House national security subcommittee. "The noose is tightening on the terrorists. The noose is tightening on Saddam Hussein. I think in four or five years from now you will see a totally different Iraq."

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Garner's testimony demonstrated how the issue of Iraq has become more politicized following last week's revelations about possible Bush administration intelligence abuses.

The confusion over allegations by President Bush that Saddam may have tried to buy uranium from an African country and the continued guerrilla insurgency aimed at U.S. troops in Iraq has made the once-taboo act of attacking the Bush White House's handling of the war in Iraq political fair game. The situation has also crystallized Democratic opposition to the administration's Iraq policies, with the candidates vying to be the party's presidential nominee in 2004 attacking the administration's handling of post-war Iraq policy and the buildup to the invasion.

In terms of addressing reconstruction issues, Garner said that significant strides have been made in targeting specific, immediate needs in the country. These include getting the Iraqi central bank functioning to the point of providing $20-a-day payments to Iraqi civil servants; the purchase and distribution of harvest foodstuffs to the population; and the training of a post-Saddam Iraqi police force.

A report released this week by the non-partisan Center for Strategic and International Studies echoed Garner's statements, but stressed that "huge challenges" lie ahead. At the request of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Ambassador Paul Bremmer, CSIS sent a team to Iraq in late June and early July to assess reconstruction efforts since the end of initial U.S. military operations in the country.

According to the CSIS report, while significant progress has been made, the next 12 months will be decisive -- and the next three months particularly crucial -- for turning around the security situation in Iraq. The CSIS team experts noted that the Iraqi population's "exceedingly high expectations" may lessen the opportunity for engagement of key ethic groups if progress on the security front is not made. Suspicions about the American presence in the country remain and signs of strain in the support for the U.S. effort are being seen.

For his part, Garner said that there is a "tremendous silent majority" of Iraqi people who are thankful that the U.S. military is in the country and don't want it to leave.

Garner told committee members that despite the problems currently faced, a new Iraqi government could be in place within 18 months. However, the United States would need to keep a presence in the country to ensure stability. Because of this, the duration of the total process remains unknown.

Although the sparsely attended hearing was mostly strife-free, the increasing politicization of the Iraq issue was apparent and not limited to strict partisanship.

Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., pressed Garner about how spending $4 billion to $4.5 billion a month in Iraq could be justified given Congress's inability to fund infrastructure projects in the United States. Duncan, the only Republican House member besides the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., to attend the hearing, noted that Congress is unlikely this year to provide the funds needed to make improvements to U.S. sewer systems, a project estimated to cost $20 billion over the next five years.

"It is just hard to justify to my people (constituents)," Duncan, who voted to approve an invasion of Iraq, told Garner. "My people have the very quaint notion that the American Congress should put the American people first."

In response, Garner noted that some of that money for reconstruction is coming from Iraqi assets frozen in the United States and that once the country's oil production is ramped up, some of the reconstruction costs could be offset.

Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., said problems cropping up in post-war Iraq demonstrate the dangers posed by the Bush administration's unilateralist policies. Those policies, he said, have left the United States unable to convince other nations to share the cost of post-war reconstruction.

"It is unparalleled arrogance in the way we conducted our foreign affairs in this matter," said Tierney. "It boggles the mind that we could have had that kind of failed leadership."

In response to criticisms about the administration's handling of the Iraq war, Garner compared Saddam to Adolf Hitler and Cambodian leader Pol Pot. He related his own experience seeing children's bodies being pulled from the mass graves of Saddam's "killing fields."

This sort of response has become central to the Bush administration's messages in reply to criticism following the invasion of Iraq and still unanswered questions about the state of Saddam's alleged weapons programs.

"I believe we will have a trust and credibility problem if we do not find the weapons of mass destruction," said Garner. "We will have the problem from people who want to make it a problem."