USIP's Iraq program aims to reduce interethnic and interreligious violence, speed up stabilization and democratization, and reduce the need for a U.S. presence in Iraq. As part of this program, USIP has maintained a small office in the Green Zone in Baghdad since early 2004. Rusty Barber, a former political officer in the Foreign Service, has run the office since March 2007. His regular dispatches offer a lively and sobering insider's view of the promise and peril facing U.S. efforts in that country. We'll update this section each week, making only minimal changes for security reasons.
The blanket of heat that descends on Iraq in the summer has slowly begun to drape itself on Baghdad. As the mercury rises, so will the load increase on the city's power grid, as residents and offices try to fend off the heat with air-conditioning units. With power still patchy, it is certain that supply will outstrip demand.
Invited by the colonel in charge of reconstruction of Baghdad's central district to a meeting with the leader of one of the new embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), I was struck by the challenges faced by the Corps of Engineers and its contractors in building and maintaining these projects.
One problem the colonel listed is the fact that when the Iraqi army is asked to protect a site, they frequently move in, cause great damage, and then make off with fixtures on their way out. She also noted that certain party-affiliated groups often take credit for a new facility, boosting their profile in a given neighborhood. A recent inspection of a health clinic in Sadr City, for example, yielded a large portrait of Moqtadr al Sadr in the entranceway, implying that customers had his organization to thank for its existence.
