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seretogis · 10-06-2003, 02:44 PM

Link: http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle....toryID=3565857

Quote:

Bush Reorganizes Iraq Stabilization Effort
Mon October 6, 2003 03:51 PM ET

By Steve Holland and Mona Megalli
WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush said on Monday he had ordered a major reorganization of U.S. efforts to bring stability to post-war Iraq, and the Turkish Cabinet sought parliamentary approval to send peacekeepers to help restore security to the country.

Bush, under increasing pressure to bring stability and security to Iraq, named national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to head an "Iraq Stabilization Group" charged with coordinating U.S. efforts on counterterrorism, economic issues, political institutions and communications.

The reorganization gave Rice a more direct role over the situation in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, but aides insisted the new group would not diminish the authority of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Officials said Rumsfeld and the U.S. leader of postwar efforts in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, helped craft the new group, which will include representatives from the State Department, Defense and Treasury.

Bush's attempts to gain broader international support to assist in peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in Iraq have been stymied by continuing instability in the country, where attacks on U.S. troops occur almost daily.

The Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people and prompted Secretary-General Kofi Annan to scale back the U.N. presence in Iraq, dealt a blow to U.S. efforts to broaden international participation in post-war reconstruction and peacekeeping through the United Nations.

Since then, Annan has challenged Washington's blueprint for Iraq, saying he did not want to risk more lives for the marginal U.N. political role envisioned in a new U.S.-drafted resolution meant to attract more money and troops.

TURKISH TROOPS

In Turkey, however, the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan moved ahead with efforts to send peacekeepers to Iraq to assist NATO ally the United States. The Cabinet sent a motion to the legislature on Monday evening seeking authorization to send the peacekeepers.

A vote on the measure could come as early as Tuesday, and a government spokesman expressed optimism it would be approved, despite the Parliament's rejection in March of a government proposal to let U.S. forces deploy on Turkish soil for an invasion of Iraq.

"Had we had any doubts, we wouldn't be sending this motion," government spokesman Cemil Cicek told reporters after Monday's five-hour Cabinet meeting.

Cicek said the motion called for a year-long deployment but did not specify how many troops would be sent.

In Iraq, officials on Monday awarded licenses for firms to set up mobile phone networks, rebuffing calls by some American lawmakers to use U.S.-backed technology to restore war-shattered communications.

Communications Minister Haidar al-Ebadi said Iraq's three regional networks would use the GSM system, already used across the Middle East, rather than U.S.-backed CDMA technology.

The licenses are among the most potentially lucrative and high-profile contracts to be offered by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority which governs postwar Iraq.

The new networks -- expected to be running within weeks according to Ebadi -- will be a boost for businesses and government ministries, but a functioning national phone system could also allow guerrillas fighting the U.S.-led occupation to organize themselves better on a national level. (Additional reporting by Fiona O'Brien in Baghdad)

I think this is a good sign -- there is obviously a need for things to be done which the DoD doesn't know how to do, and hopefully Rice will be able to make the rebuilding more efficient and give the Iraqis themselves more power to police themselves.

Nineteen year old soldiers should be helping to rebuild hospitals and schools, not acting as police officers when the Iraqi Police are there for that very reason.