11 January 2007
Rice Appoints Assistance Coordinator as Part of U.S. Iraq Plan
Number of civilian provincial reconstruction teams to expand
Washington -- The Bush administration’s military strategy in Iraq will be “fully supported and integrated” with civilian and diplomatic efforts, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, and she appointed retired Ambassador Timothy Carney to oversee U.S. reconstruction and development projects in the country.
Rice, along with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Peter Pace, briefed reporters in Washington about implementation of the Iraq strategy presented by President Bush January 10. (See related article.)
Carney will fill the new position of coordinator for Iraq Transitional Assistance to ensure U.S. economic support for Iraq “is closely integrated with our political assistance and our security strategy,” Rice said.
A retired Foreign Service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Haiti from 1998-1999, Carney “has enormous experience in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction and development,” Rice said. He was also the last accredited U.S. ambassador to Sudan from 1995-1997. After leaving the State Department he served as chairman of the board of the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP), a small nonprofit policy research entity, and led an HDP delegation to Haiti in February 2005.
In an interview earlier in the day with Fox television, Rice said Carney will coordinate with U.S. and Iraqi leaders on reconstruction projects.
“[I]t's very important that the Iraqis now spend their own funding for reconstruction, for jobs, for the kinds of day-to-day activities that their people are just desperate for. And in order to help them do that, we of course are decentralizing our efforts, diversifying our efforts to work more closely with local and provincial leaders,” she said.
The State and Defense departments also will be expanding the number of joint provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) from 10 to “at least 18,” Rice said during the briefing. Mirroring the deployment of additional U.S. military forces, the number of PRTs in Baghdad will expand from one to six, and in Anbar province from one to three, she added.
“The logic behind PRTs is simple: Success in Iraq relies on more than military efforts, it requires robust political and economic progress,” she said. The teams are tasked with reconstruction projects, job training, and helping to build democratic institutions.
“We must … get our civilians out of the embassy, out of the Green Zone, and into the field across Iraq, to support promising local leaders and promising local structures. This will enhance and diversify our chances of success in Iraq,” Rice said.
The United States hopes to strengthen governance “from the bottom up” and has learned “it is somewhat more effective to be able to deliver governance and economic development and reconstruction at a more local level,” including Iraq’s provinces, Rice said, adding that “as important as Baghdad is, not everything rests on Baghdad.”
PLAN SEEKS “BETTER BALANCE” OF U.S. MILITARY, CIVILIAN EFFORTS
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said President Bush’s plan seeks “a better balance” of U.S. military and nonmilitary efforts than had previously existed. “We cannot succeed in Iraq without the important nonmilitary elements Secretary Rice just mentioned,” he said.
Gates said the duration of the “temporary surge” of U.S. troops in Iraq is “really hard to say at this point,” but the United States will be able to know “pretty early on” if the Iraqi forces that U.S. troops are being sent to support are meeting their military commitments, including taking the lead in operations, having access to every neighborhood and operating free from political interference.
“[F]rankly, the notion that the Iraqis are standing by while we're doing the fighting is really not an accurate statement,” he said, relating that “now more than half of the casualties coming into U.S. military hospitals in Iraq are Iraqi military, so they are fighting.”
Gates added that all sections of Baghdad, including the heavily Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, will be involved in the new campaign.
For additional details, see a transcript of the briefing by Secretary Rice, Secretary Gates and General Pace.
A fact sheet on PRTs in Iraq is available on the State Department Web site, as are a biography of Ambassador Carney and the transcripts of Rice’s interviews with CBS, NBC and Fox News.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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