Photo By Staff Sgt. Zachary Mott | Col. John Hort, a Fayetteville, N.C., native, walks with members of a Congressional...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Zach Mott
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE WAR EAGLE, Iraq – Reconstruction in Iraq means more than fixing broken walls and stocking store shelves.
Representatives from the U.S. State Department, as well as other contracted civilian employees, comprise embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams throughout Iraq to help fill the country's reconstruction needs. These teams focus on governance, economic development, rule of law and women's issues.
"The mission is, I always tell people, to help bring a sustainable, democratic government, promote moderate and encourage economic development in Baghdad," said Ted Andrews, team leader for Baghdad ePRT 3, which is partnered with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.
Andrews' 17-member team meets regularly with elected officials and other governmental authorities in northern Baghdad to provide mentorship.
"We try to encourage people to give them skills that they can promote and use when we're not there," said Andrews, a Houston native.
For this team, which operates in Baghdad's two most diverse districts – the progressive Adhamiyah district and the volatile Sadr City district - the challenges are vast and varied. Andrews said he cautions his team members to remain guarded in their hopes for a projects' success.
"It's hard for us to admit that we can't care about something more than they do," he said. "We do our best and at a certain point we've got to pull back and they've got to take it and make something of it."
And make something of it the Iraqi people have. One success story that Andrews likes to tout is the Modern Sewing Company in Adhamiyah. With the help of startup funds provided by both the United States and an Iraqi non-governmental organization, the Modern Sewing Company is making uniforms for the school children in Sadr City and the some surrounding communities in Adhamiyah.
"We organized a way, with the help of the IA, to get the things out of the factory and into a warehouse and now, finally, more of them are moving up toward the kids," Andrews said.
Other successes are harder to quantify. As Andrews describes, progress isn't going to come in one sweeping event that defines an end to an American presence in Iraq.
"This is one of those places where you have to put your foot on the brakes and step on the gas at the same time. You've got to be pushing all these buttons in the society to get it going. We're only going to win one block at a time in this place. Victory is going to be a process, not a single event," he said.
Sadr City presents its own unique challenges. The southern third of the district is separated from its northern portion by a concrete wall. Each side of this wall must be dealt with in different ways.
"The frustration still is the slow progress within the government north of the wall in terms of some of the reconstruction and essential services that they don't see existing or occurring like they have down in the areas that we currently operate," said Col. John Hort, commander of the 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div., MND-B. "Our job right now is, we hear those assessments, is to try to continue to work with Ted and the other side of the river with the central government to try to work to get those types of initiatives moving a little bit quicker so the people can see not just a security element that they're very pleased with but also the governance and the essential services moving."
The partnership between the ePRT and Striker Brigade has allowed a sustainable level of progress to take hold with the Iraqi people feeling hopeful – something that has been absent in many, many years.
"Can now the Iraqi housewife go to the market and buy vegetables and chicken with a much-reduced fear that they're going to get blown up? That's the sort of progress we're doing," Andrews said.
| Date Taken: | 11.24.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.24.2008 06:19 |
| Story ID: | 26708 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 135 |
| Downloads: | 128 |
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