http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak18.html
Rebuilding and retribution in Iraq
December 18, 2003
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Two weeks before Saddam Hussein was found in a rat hole, one high-level U.S. civilian in Iraq sent this e-mail to another: ''My opinion is that CPA (the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority) is a living breathing [obscenity]. It is beyond negligent or even criminal. It is tragic in the Greek sense.'' Capture of the tyrant softens that grim assessment, but it is not the only good news from occupied Iraq.
Even the most negative observer concedes that Hussein in captivity devastates the morale of the guerrillas. That transcendent development coincides with the assignment of two new deputies to chief U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer to bring order out of chaos. Really ''winning'' the war in Iraq remains a massive undertaking, but hardheaded officials now regard prospects as better than at any time since President Bush on May 1 declared the collapse of Iraqi military resistance.
The Bush administration has spent a lot of time saying how well things have gone in Iraq, contending the happy truth has been obscured by negative news media coverage. This is privately described by officials as the ''smoke and mirrors'' technique. Nobody has recognized that more clearly than Jerry Bremer. He was not summoned to Washington when he volunteered for a brief visit Nov. 11. He wanted to tell the president personally just how bad things really were in Iraq and, in fact, got a rare one-on-one meeting with Bush.
The inadequate, unrealistic planning for the occupation of Iraq will never be admitted publicly, but it is common knowledge at high levels of the administration. The notion that Iraqi exiles could step in to run the country, pressed on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by his civilian advisory board, was a chimera. Bremer, bearing credentials as an anti-terrorist expert, was brought in May 7 with the U.S. occupation already in disarray.
Esteemed though he is as a public servant, Bremer lacks experience administering large complex organizations. Consequently, more than seven months after taking over Baghdad, two deputies are coming aboard to run the country: Richard H. Jones, an Arabic-speaking veteran foreign service officer who has been the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait the last two years, and Lt. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg Jr., who comes from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, where he has been J-6 (command, control, communications and computer systems).
Jones, supervising political and economic questions for CPA, will run the operations of Iraqi government industries. Kellogg, who once commanded the 82nd Airborne Division, will handle CPA's day-to-day operations. That includes establishing Iraq's new security forces and rebuilding the oil and electricity sectors of the government. They are all areas which have suffered from poor planning and shoddy administration.
Having arrived in Baghdad the first week of December, Gen. Kellogg plans massive reorganization. In the words of one U.S. official, these changes ''will shake the rotten fruit from the trees.'' A principal subordinate is retired Adm. David Nash, who agrees with Kellogg on the need for big changes in the way things have been done. Corporate executive Nash is specifically in charge of spending $18.6 billion in supplemental funds provided by Congress for the Iraqi economy.
The men around Kellogg and Nash want an end to the deceptive public relations favored by the inner circle at the Pentagon. They consider the changes that will be put in place to be nothing less than a revolution, and they want these deeds to speak for themselves.
If the right kind of team is finally in place for this massive undertaking, its burden is measurably lightened by removing the threat of Saddam Hussein. Stratfor, the private intelligence service that often takes a pessimistic view, this week called Saddam's capture ''a massive psychological blow to the guerrillas'' that ''increases the credibility of the United States dramatically and raises doubts about the viability of the guerrillas.''
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who unlike his Pentagon colleagues foresaw a troubled future in Iraq, has been reported by friends as uncharacteristically gloomy of late. Now, while recovering from successful prostate cancer surgery, he can rejoice that the United States may finally be on the right track in an Iraq without Saddam Hussein.
