Iraqi Reporters Question US Reconstruction Record

"Reconstruction Chief Challenged by Iraqis" - Reuters (Baghdad), 13 Nov 2005

Iraqi perceptions that not enough is being done to rebuild the country after the U.S.-led invasion are simply a case of bad public relations, Washington's new reconstruction chief said on Sunday.

Challenged by Iraqi reporters at his first news conference since he arrived in Baghdad to head the U.S. embassy's Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, Dan Speckhart listed a string of U.S.-funded projects covering health, education, transport, water and electricity generation.

"I recognize some people are frustrated perhaps that it's not moving as fast as they would like but the basis is there," Speckhart responded when asked why there was little evidence of progress in Baghdad, where electricity is erratic at best....

In July a report by the U.S. Congress' investigative arm said that as of May 2005, power generation in Iraq was at a lower level than before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Many Iraqis spend whole evenings without power, and last summer, when temperatures rose above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (around 49 Celsius), families were making do with about eight hours of power a day, two hours on and then four off....

Another Iraqi reporter asked him about a recommendation by a UN watchdog agency that Washington should repay $208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton Co. subsidiary.

Speckhart said the problem was much of the U.S.-funded work done was not visible enough. "I wish I had time to take you all on field trips," he told the reporters.

"I understand it's a big country and it's not happening as fast as Iraqis would like, but it is happening," he said.

Pressed by a third reporter about an unfinished hospital project in a Shi'ite district in Baghdad, Speckhart said penalties for companies would depend on their contract.

"Sometimes in Iraq there can be delays that are not the fault of the companies," he said.

A report by the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction at the end of October said more than a quarter of all reconstruction funds had been spent on security costs to protect contractors, hundreds of whom have died in Iraq. That eats away at what ends up being spent on Iraq and Iraqis.

"We're trying to build and the terrorists are trying to destroy," Speckhart said, adding that U.S. authorities often did not publicize successes to avoid attracting attacks.

"Part of the challenge we have faced is we haven't advertised what we're doing in all these places," he said.

Speckhart said reporters who questioned why so many contracts had gone to U.S. firms, such as Halliburton, a company once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, were misinformed.

"It's not the case any more that there are just large international firms doing this," Speckhart said. "Iraqi firms are making the money."

For other news on Iraqi perceptions of US assistance and reconstruction, see:

"US Priorities Set Back Its Healthcare Goals in Iraq," by T. Christian Miller (in Basra) - the Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct 2005

Laura Bush's gift to the people of Iraq is rising in a dirt lot across from a sheep market here, hidden behind high concrete walls and towers with armed guards.

Behind the walls, hundreds of Iraqi workers in blue jumpsuits scurry around a construction site filled with rebar, dirt and trailers. The project, funded by the U.S. government and donations raised with the first lady's help, will someday be a hospital equipped to treat pediatric cancer patients.

But today, international health experts and Iraqi doctors say, it's an emblem of the problems with U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq's shattered healthcare system.

Nobody denies that Iraq needs new hospitals, but the experts questioned the priorities of Washington's $1-billion rebuilding plan, which has focused on construction instead of basic needs such as better training for doctors and public healthcare campaigns.

"We have more important priorities to solve our urgent health problems," said Abdulamir Khafaji, the chief pediatrician at Basra's largest hospital, citing the need for additional equipment in his emergency room.

Although reliable statistics are scarce, it does not appear that U.S. spending has markedly improved Iraq's bleak healthcare landscape.

Easily treatable conditions such as diarrhea and respiratory illness account for 70% of deaths among children, according to a 2004 Iraqi Health Ministry study. A third of rural Iraqis skip treatment because it's too costly. The Health Ministry estimates that as many as 25% of Iraq's 18,000 physicians have fled the country since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

A U.N. study this year found that a third of the children in southern and central Iraq are malnourished, the same as in 2003. And the American contractor in charge of revamping the healthcare system completed less than half its goals, according to a scathing U.S. audit....

Iraqis and health experts said more attention should have been paid to refurbishing the country's dilapidated network of 1,700 clinics and nearly 200 hospitals. A 2004 survey of 214 clinics found that only 10% had a regular water supply, only half had electric generators, and less than a third had "functional and relatively clean" toilets.

"I saw enormous incompetence which was more costly than even Iraqi corruption," said Richard Garfield, a Columbia University health expert who worked with U.S. and international officials in Iraq last year. The U.S. "was pouring money down the drain."

Officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development said U.S. efforts were beginning to show results. For instance, a United Nations campaign, to which the U.S. has contributed, has resulted in polio vaccinations for 98% of Iraqi children.

The U.S. also dramatically increased pay for doctors and nurses, raised the Health Ministry budget from $16 million under Saddam Hussein to $210 million in 2003 and recently implemented a training program for nurses and doctors.

The U.S. focus on buildings such as the Basra Children's Hospital, which is projected to cost $50 million, will also pay off, the officials said.

"We're building for the future," said Heather Layman, a USAID spokeswoman. "Our belief is that planning for the future and setting ambitious goals ultimately helps the Iraqis achieve their goals."

Other U.S. officials acknowledge early missteps. They say they regret that the U.S. did not do a better job of rapidly improving medical care in Iraq, especially for women and children, because it would have helped build goodwill.

"If the amount of child mortality under Saddam and since the conflict [had] happened in the States, things would be in an uproar," said one U.S. official, who declined to be identified because he was not a designated spokesman. "You have to do more. We could be doing more than we are...."

[Iraqi] doctors said that the United States' lack of progress had led to bad feelings among Iraqis.

"Two years have passed, and there is no serious change," Abdali Qadhim, a physician at the hospital, said as he sat through the semi-darkness of a power outage. "In April 2003, people came to welcome an American convoy. Afterward, when people saw nothing, no services, no nothing, the opposite happened...."