Gary Selnow's reports from the field

Sunday, May 25, 2003

The team drove eight hours from Kuwait City to Baghdad in an armed, three-vehicle convoy and arrived at the largest of Saddam Hussein's palaces where the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) has established its headquarters. In addition to housing the transition team's administrative offices, the palace (untouched by the war) also billets troops, coalition officials and contractors.

Saddam's palace is a gilded, marbled, frescoed, crystal chandeliered display of a tyrant's self-indulgence. Other despots have venerated themselves with monuments of such extravagance, but few have built their tributes in the midst of such utter poverty and at such a great cost to their people. With the money spent on this palace, Saddam could have constructed a well-equipped town for a few thousand Iraqis or revamped the country's educational system, its health care programs or its communication system.

Large as a museum, garish as a Vegas hotel, secure as a fortress, this palace perched on the Tigris River makes for an odd headquarters and encampment. We may never know how Saddam used this place, but today the palace is as busy as a bus station and a bit noisier. A few thousand coalition soldiers and civilian workers tread on Saddam's polished floors, sit on Saddam's stuffed chairs, dine in Saddam's banquet hall, bathe in Saddam's marble bathrooms. Workers are repairing a filtering system, and soon the troops will swim in Saddam's pool. What a splendid irony that this shameless tribute to a tyrant now houses the tyrant's evictors. The new occupants are taking good care of the place, and in time they will turn it over to the Iraqi people.

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

I have been observing the sincerity and commitment of the people working on this large reconstruction team--Americans and a long roster of other nationals. They display none of the cynicism one might expect, none of the enmity or attitude that could reasonably follow in the face of a conflict that, despite official pronouncements, is not quite over (two American soldiers were killed Monday night, May 26, in Baghdad and one was wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive).

This team of military and civilians from government and the private sector is really quite remarkable. I've watched these people start their 20-hour workdays at dawn. An American civilian working with the Iraqi media told me that at home, in Little Rock, she needs her eight hours sleep; here in Baghdad, she gets only four. "That's what it takes to do the job," she said with no resentment in her voice.

For the few thousand people living here, Saddam's Palace is no lap of luxury despite what you might think; the beauty of this stone marvel is skin deep. The makeshift beds are small and spare, they have no sheets or pillows. Rooms are packed dorm style with five or more residents; my room has 12 snorers who stop by for a few zees, and they all share a one-commode, one-sink, one-stall shower whose water supply has been more a promise than a probability. In close quarters, Spartan bathing facilities are no joy when the mercury hits 110. So, this place is no spa and these people do not come here for the waters.

They also don't come here to get rich. Most are mid-level employees who earn a good wage, but they could do just as well back home. The people are driven by a real interest to help Iraq get beyond Saddam and on a course for recovery. They offer their skills and share their knowledge about the gritty business of running a country that has been neglected and abused and most recently defeated in war. Office doors here bear signs such as "Ministry of Health," "Ministry of Justice," "Ministry of Finance" each dedicated to the development of a system that can move Iraq closer to a functional society.

And, you will see Iraqis in this palace, hundreds of them. Nearly everyone I've spoken with on the coalition teams has expressed a keen interest in transferring to the Iraqis as quickly as possible the task of running the country, and for that they need lots of face time. The sentiment here is "we're desperately trying to work ourselves out of a job." Their plan to do that is to help design the blueprints, organize the Iraqi agencies, train the trainers and go home. That, at least, is how the people I've talked with see it, and to pull that off they work side-by-side with the Iraqis who soon will run this place Evidence gleaned from the working team here is that the plan really is to give Iraq back to the Iraqis--lock, stock and barrel--and to do that as quickly as possible.

These reconstruction efforts go through phases, and these early phases are typically adrenalin driven and chaotic. That describes things at the Saddam Palace in Baghdad, but that environment will soon change. Days will still be long but not as long and not as frenetic, routines will take hold, firmed-up policies will drive beefed-up procedures, and the reconstruction effort will transform more or less into a regular assignment-although on a few steroids. Pity that the spirit evident here will likely transform into the ordinary as well. In the meanwhile, it's a real inspiration.