IRAQ Can U.S. win back hearts, minds?

U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure are going unnoticed.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
TIKRIT, IRAQ -- When this city on the Tigris River -- the birthplace of Saddam Hussein -- recently celebrated the reopening of a bridge left impassable by the war, the rededication ceremony seemed complete.
A ribbon was cut, balloons in the three colors of the Iraqi flag were released, and a U.S. military band played the Iraqi national anthem. Iraqi and U.S. officials assembled in the tar-melting sun spoke of the $5.4 million U.S.-funded project as a symbol of the Iraqi-U.S. partnership and the forward march of a democratic, prosperous Iraq.
Only one thing was missing: average Iraqis. With the life of the governor in attendance threatened and security concerns having caused months of delays on the bridge repair -- within the last month an engineer and three workers were killed for working on the project -- no one could take the risk of inviting the local population.
Yet this is the kind of effort that many Iraqis say they simply don't see. It's an example of why, some 18 months after the fall of Hussein and confident promises of progress, many Iraqis are estranged from a U.S. presence they originally embraced.
One American objective in Iraq -- and a key aspect of the war on terrorism -- was to begin winning Muslims over by liberating Iraqis from a despot and building a freer and better country. But then the U.S. profile shifted from liberator to occupier in the eyes of many Iraqis. Growing numbers of people seized upon the U.S. presence to explain staggering violence, while reconstruction stalled or -- as in the case of the Tikrit bridge -- went unsung.
Now the question is whether the United States, in a supportive role to the appointed interim government, can win back the hearts and minds it has lost.
Views among analysts and average Iraqis vary widely. Some insist the United States can preserve good will only by starting to draw down its troops. Others fear the United States may give up what they see as its historic calling to reform a backward and unstable region.
In between is the position that only a firm withdrawal date will convince Iraqis the United States is here in their interest. Even some experts opposed to the U.S. military presence say the United States will win here only if it restores security and helps ensure transparent elections.
"No one should expect the Iraqi people to trust the American government's claims and slogans when nothing it promised has been accomplished and the country remains under military occupation," says Nabeal Younis, a noted Iraqi public policy expert who has consulted with American officials since the war. "But I think that if they help re-establish security, rebuild the state institutions, and ensure fair and honest elections, then it is possible to accomplish some of their goals -- and to be friends with the Iraqi people."
Disappointment
The U.S. government says it is doing just that. But even some people closely involved with U.S.-funded projects say they are disappointed by efforts to inform Iraqis and to win them over to the reconstruction process. "I don't think it's conducted very well, but it's something that should be key," says Terry Valenzano, program director for Bechtel Corp. on the bridge and other projects.
The United States has cleaned up or refurbished more than 2,300 schools, and undertaken thousands of projects ranging from water and sewage facilities and road repairs to new computers for ministries and crop-dusting.
President Bush said Saturday that U.S. spending on reconstruction is accelerating and that within the next "several months" $9 billion -- as opposed to just over $1 billion now -- would be spent. But some analysts note that a growing share of U.S. reconstruction funds is being eaten up by security, while costs like foreign contracting mean that Iraqis aren't seeing a large part of the huge amounts the United States is spending on their behalf.
U.S. officials say that even as more "visible" projects such as highway paving and school repairs come on line, the plan is to place a high priority on elections slated for January.
With surveys showing Iraqis more hopeful about elections than about the current appointed government, the idea is to have even imperfect elections demonstrate a nascent democracy -- and America's role in it.
A key part of the elections focus is to return a U.S. presence and Iraqi government authority to areas of the country that have resisted the U.S. effort in Iraq. The American military recently reinstated a cooperative local council and resumed infrastructure work in the formerly off-limits town of Samarra. Initial results have been mixed, however, with the new police chief having resigned after repeated death threats.
Sadr City
The U.S. military is also pressing its return to Sadr City, the huge Baghdad slum that over recent months has fallen under tightened control of forces backing the anti-occupation Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. military officials say their plan is to establish a beachhead on the sector's more cooperative south side where infrastructure and cleanup projects can proceed, and serve as an enticement for the rest of the district of 2.5 million people to give up its resistance.
Many Sadr City residents say the United States has a strange way of trying to win people's hearts, with night air raids and street skirmishes over recent weeks targeting al-Sadr's armed supporters.
"The Americans say a lot, but they never do anything -- this is all they know how to do," says Hatem Zuaia Zamel, as he surveys his charred paint store. The shop was destroyed last week when, according to Zamel and a crowd of angry neighbors, a U.S. tank firing indiscriminately sent ammunition into the store and ignited its combustible products. "They have destroyed me," adds Zamel, kicking blackened paint cans. "Who could ever welcome someone doing this?"
A few streets away, Nasser Aboud points out the crumpled metal of what was his home's front gate and holes in exterior walls -- results of U.S. tank fire. "The worst is that five family members were injured. One will probably lose his legs," he says.
Still, Aboud says the Americans would be welcomed in Sadr City if they came to rebuild a poor district -- and weren't wearing uniforms. "We would welcome civilian contractors," says the retired Army officer, "but if they come to us atop tanks and pointing weapons, it will never work."
Indeed, the U.S. military has fitfully tried to work on infrastructure and public health in Sadr City for at least a year, but the delayed start on public works cost it local good will, and after violence broke out this summer, it became almost impossible to carry out construction work.