16 December 2004
Defense Dept. Report, December 16: Iraq Reconstruction, Security Issues
Pentagon conducts three briefings on coalition progress in Iraq
IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS ARE EXPANDING
Rebuilding Iraq and protecting the forces that are attempting to promote peace are high U.S. priorities, according to several Pentagon officials who conducted three separate briefings December 15.
Charlie Hess, director of the Department of Defense's Iraq Project and Contracting Office (PCO), said that over $2 billion had been disbursed, as of the beginning of December, to pay for existing or completed projects -- up significantly from $721 million in August.
"Most of this is going into the economy in Iraq," he said. "Much of the subcontracts, the prime contracts, are being done by Iraq firms." Equipment and materials available in Iraq are also purchased there, he said.
With work under way on more than 1,000 projects, employing more than 100,000 Iraqi citizens daily, Hess said the number of employed Iraqis is expected to grow to about 145,000 by this summer.
"We are making significant progress in many areas, particularly in terms of schools, border forts, road projects and water and sewer projects," Hess said.
Hess said he was encouraged by the sense of ownership members of the Kirkuk community have shown in suggesting improvements to their planned projects.
Little reconstruction is occurring in the Sunni Triangle, however, because of security concerns. Work is under way in Samarra and Najaf, Hess said, and the PCO is poised to begin projects in Fallujah once military commanders say it is safe.
"Even though the security environment is not what we'd like it to be [in Iraq], progress is being made on the construction side of our business there," he said.
MILITARY ENHANCING VEHICLE ARMOR
Major General Stephen Speakes, deputy commander of operations for the Third Army, said that the military was spending $4.1 billion to add extra protective armor to its vehicles. All of the light truck HUMVEES (high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles) will receive additional armor by March 2005 and all other vehicles by June 2005, he said, adding that these upgrades have been scheduled for a year, ever since insurgents first began relying heavily on booby-trapped bombs.
Brigadier General Jeffrey Sorenson, an acquisitions and systems management officer, said that in the first months after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein " the commanders on the ground made a determination it just wasn't going to make sense to win the hearts and minds of a people by having tanks and Bradley [armored fighting vehicles] and so forth running up and down the streets. So they tried to put [coalition forces] into vehicles that were less obtrusive as well as [providing] an ability for them to engage [with Iraqi citizens]. However, as a consequence of that, we began to find a threat that we had not anticipated, and we then had to respond to that threat with [new] protection levels."
"Over time," Speakes said, " the nature of the threat is changing. For example, a year ago the amount of explosive that was being used in an IED [Improvised Explosive Device] was much lower than it is now."
As a result of this, Sorenson said the military is focused not only on armoring but changing the way troops and supplies are transported within the country and "introducing some other sophisticated systems to pre-detonate or preclude the detonation of those particular explosive devices."
INSURGENTS INCREASING USE OF ROADSIDE BOMBINGS
In a separate briefing, Air Force Lieutenant General Lance Smith, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, addressed the impact of the insurgency's increasing use of roadside bombings.
The enemy, he said, "has recognized that he cannot take us on in a direct fight. He loses every time. So he has chosen to operate in our rear areas and use improvised explosive devices to attack us. And in doing that, it's changed the way we have to armor our vehicles that normally would operate pretty freely in the rear area and wouldn't require armor."
Smith said the bombings also have caused the coalition force to reroute vehicles, travel in convoys and make more use of cargo airplanes.
He said, however, that real security problems exist in only four of Iraq's 18 provinces.
"In 14 of those provinces, we could probably have elections tomorrow," he said. "But it is absolutely clear that the insurgents will make every effort to try and make these elections as difficult as possible to try to force a delay."
"They will try and have greater impact as we get closer to the election," Smith said. Although he does not believe the size of the insurgency is growing, he did say its level of violent activity is increasing.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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