Rebuilding Iraq not an easy task

Hernando Today JOHN HERBERT Published: May 9, 2003

Some Iraqis can't wait for us Americans to leave their country. What's the hurry? They've already suffered a generation of Saddam Hussein's terror. We've hung around Kosovo and Afghanistan more years than first anticipated. I don't hear any complaints, except from, possibly, a closeted Taliban.

Before we go anywhere, we should stabilize and then rebuild Iraq. There are numerous cries to let the United Nations do the rebuilding job. Not on your Nelly! We still hold lots of cards. One thing we don't need in Iraq is a U.N.-type bureaucracy. And we certainly don't want to reward the likes of France, Germany and Russia if they see the U.N. as a way to get in the back door of a new Iraq.

Why are they so anxious to get back into Iraq in the first place? To cover up their pre-war messes? We've already dug up quite a few arms and missiles with European or Russian lettering on them. They aren't exactly covered by the U.N.'s Iraqi "Oil for Food" program.

Alternative proposals would put peacekeeping NATO or European Union forces in a new Iraq. That would be ridiculous. The country isn't even European. A European-based organization like NATO or the E.U. doesn't belong in Iraq. They are both huge bureaucracies like the U.N. The E.U. alone has over 12,000 translators on its staff!

Whoever rebuilds Iraq should be more action than words. According to the Geneva Convention on the rules of war, the invading party (that's us) should be in charge of a country's postwar recovery. That system worked out just fine in the post-WWII rebuilding of Germany and Japan. Both programs were led by American generals. We have the same basic approach to post-Saddam Iraq. With much of the financing by the country's oil exports, though, the U.N. will probably insist on a say-so.

We have to remind our critics -- armchair generals and foreign governments alike -- that we battled for democracy in Iraq. It's what your average Iraqi in the street wants, too; not another Iran. It would be a pity to hand the country over now to a hostile theocracy or a religious dictatorship. We already have fanatics there chanting "Death to America; death to Israel." Enough of that.

Rebuilding Iraq won't be easy. We've already seen fanatical mobs take over some cities. The potential for turf wars is huge. Just look at the armed tribes of Afghanistan. There are leadership vacuums in Iraq for the moment. The U.N., Russia, Germany or France shouldn't complicate matters. Nor Democrats with a totally different agenda, for that matter.

The Iraqis have been through a very difficult spell. They've spent almost 30 years living under the constant threat of execution. The relevant question is how long it might take the Iraqis to live in freedom. I suspect years rather than months.

Just as we don't want to hand over Iraq to religious fanatics, we don't want to see the nation wind up as a socialist Venezuela or in civil strife a la Nigeria, either. Both of those countries are as rich in oil as Iraq, but we can't risk a Nigerian or Venezuelan climate in Baghdad.

What we've got ahead of us on a practical level is the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure. You can't expect a democracy to function without water, electricity, telephones and media (what would Iraq become minus cell phones and the Internet?), schools and hospitals, airports, harbors and road haulage. Food should be high on the list, too.

We've seen television reports that Iraq is preparing to introduce a new currency or even to introduce a dollarization of the economy. Using the dollar as Iraq's money sounds too much like imperialism.

Cash without Saddam's smush on it would be warranted. That entails little niceties such as accounting, a central bank and a broader financial system.

Looking over that initial shopping list, President Bush's request for $2 billion in immediate rebuilding funds won't last long in Iraq. There's a two- or three-year need for $50-$60 billion. With so much money at stake, it's no wonder the critical Europeans and U.N. want back in.

No doubt, they'll get a piece of the action at some point. Perhaps when their countries start contributing to finance the rebuilding effort. What speaks in their favor is that many European firms have long and wide experience of doing business in Iraq, whatever that may mean.

Herbert writes regularly for Hernando Today. He lives in Spring Hill.