A Gust of Realism in Iraq

In his briefings to the president and Congress and his appearances on talk shows and at press conferences, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq this week accurately reflected the need to act quickly to make postwar reconstruction a success.

The realistic assessment of L. Paul Bremer III echoed the views of other experts who have visited Iraq recently and concluded that the window of opportunity won’t stay open long. His reports also represented a refreshing change from the Bush administration’s heedlessness of past advice on what would be needed in Iraq when major combat ended.

He said that security remains the top priority. Iraqis are killing U.S. soldiers nearly every day; the combat death toll exceeds 150, more than were killed in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Streets are not safe for civilians, either. To improve security, Bremer said that in the next 60 days he would recruit hundreds of soldiers for a new Iraqi army and thousands of officers for a new police force. His plans also call for reestablishing a border guard and resuming court trials.

The occupation forces also need to get utilities operating at prewar levels as soon as possible. Bremer spoke Thursday of a plan to put small generators atop 36 pumping stations, because when the electricity fails, so does water service. That kind of results-oriented planning should produce success, but only if it is executed efficiently and quickly.

Bremer said that decades of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship left Iraq in worse shape than U.S. officials expected. That’s another intelligence lapse; allied nations kept embassies in Baghdad until shortly before the war and could have reported on the failure to upgrade 1950s electrical equipment and 1960s textile mills.

Last week, a five-person team from two Washington think tanks concluded after an 11-day Iraq visit that Washington had wrongly assumed that the war would cut off the head of the Iraqi government but keep the rest operating.

Instead, entire ministries collapsed. Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said Wednesday that the Pentagon also wrongly expected many Iraqi army units to defect to U.S. forces; his comments were another salutary acknowledgment of error from an administration that was overly confident about war results.

Bremer has been both optimistic and realistic in his speeches this week. He stressed the many billions of dollars required for long-term rebuilding and the problems ahead: Prewar electricity levels will still leave the country about one-third short of its needs.

Bremer has long-range plans, but right now it is the quick fixes, like keeping the water-pumping stations operating around the clock, that will show Iraqis the invaders are trying to make life better and will further diminish support for die-hards firing guns and grenades at U.S. troops.