[FbL here, with another installment in a series of interviews with the leadership of 3rd ID/Taskforce Marne.]
Wednesday morning I spoke by phone to Brigadier General Edward Cardon, Assistant Division Commander (Support), 3rd Infantry Division, currently in Iraq. In thirty-five minutes we covered a great deal of ground, focusing mostly on reconstruction, redevelopment and political engagement. 3rd ID functions as leadership for Multi-National Division—Central (MND-C), covering a band of land just south of Baghdad City from east to west, and south past Karbala and Najaf.
I began by asking BG Cardon about operations and engagements in the two weeks since I spoke to CSM Andrews. He reported that attacks remain at a rate of roughly four per day, though there were no attacks Wednesday. Their biggest activity this week has been disposing of discovered weapons caches. He said the Sons of Iraq (formerly Concerned Local Citizens) have been reporting weapons caches at such a high rate recently that it is challenging Coalition disposal personnel (EOD, etc). Among the caches have been a number of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs, the most deadly IEDs); BG Cardon reports they have observed no direct evidence of Iranian activity, but the EFPs are “associated as Iranian.” The EFP issue seemed to neither surprise nor alarm him.
I asked BG Cardon about efforts to knit together local governance and national leadership, and how the Sons of Iraq and the challenge of the Sunni-Shia divide fit in. He said that the SOI are largely tribal, but the leaders of SOI groups participate in local councils, which are then linked to local governments, Nahia, Kada, and finally the Provinces. He gave the example of Baghdad Province, in which the Shia governor has been visiting leadership in Mahmoudiyah, Arab Jabour and Salaman Pak, which are Sunni regions. He reports that these meetings have been productive as the leaders are developing contacts and getting to know each other. Right now, the Sunnis in the area have little representation at the provincial and national level because they largely sat out the elections of 2005. However, they are anxious to participate in the elections this Fall, and so these contacts are setting the stage for future governance. BG Cardon described this--and building government from the ground up--as a grassroots action.
However, the Coalition is walking a fine line in using SOI as an organizing force for governance because participants in some areas have been showing signs of trying to organize themselves into political parties, which is a big concern. “We watch this closely….We don’t want a militia to form. One of the problems here is that every political party has an armed wing.” BG Cardon was emphatic that such things are not tolerated. “If you want a political movement, you’re no longer part of the Sons of Iraq,” which means no more money in exchange for SOI activities such as neighborhood checkpoints.
Getting local Iraqis hooked into the national government has been a big challenge in recent years, as corruption, incompetence and other barriers to effective governance have disillusioned many. However, BG Cardon reports that he has observed a shift in Iraqi attitudes toward the government in his AO since he arrived. The Iraqis seem to be a bit more patient about rebuilding and redevelopment. “[There is] a growing understanding that Iraq didn’t get this way in a day and won’t take a day to improve it. The national government is also doing a better job of explaining what is going on and how it will take time, and so people are more patient.”
Locals are showing a real desire to engage with the central government because they see it as being the source of services to their areas and having the capacity to facilitate the transfer of goods in their locale. As an example, BG Cardon mentioned that in a recently-secured area, one of the first things that was done was to bring in the Iraqi government construction teams to pave the roads, which thrilled the village. Things such as this are becoming more common because local governors are “more active in getting out and about,” developing contacts with town/tribal leaders that enable them to identify needs and spend their money more effectively.
BG Cardon said that something he’s found particularly encouraging lately is the level of private (foreign) investment interest in Iraq. “There have been more [inquiries about investment] in the last three weeks than I saw in the last ten months. There have not been very many deals completed yet, but “companies are very encouraged by what they find.” He acknowledges that people have a perception that security is still a huge issue in MND-C’s area, but says they are incorrectly “extrapolating” based on reports from Northern Iraq, not realizing that things are so much calmer south of Baghdad. For example, he reported that there is no need to wear body armor in Najaf, and described taking a private investor to visit. “Is security like this all the time,” the investor asked? “Been like this for several months,” Cardon said he replied, to the investor’s astonishment.
This is the big story that Cardon expects to become more obvious in the near future, “The real story over the next several months is going to be political and economic.” He pointed to the recent legislation passed, but also talked of Iraq’s great economic potential: “With the resources, the people, they could resume their role as the breadbasket of the Middle East.” He also mentioned opportunities to develop a strong tourist industry as the area becomes safer—Shia shrines, sites of historical significance to Christians, etc.
As he talked of Iraq’s economic prospects, he stopped to caution that things can still go wrong on the security front, but his enthusiasm and excitement about the future kept spilling over, as he discussed the potential for foreign investors who would bring industry and jobs to Iraqis. He said now is the time for business to come and take a look. “This is a country of personal engagement…. Getting here early is a good thing if you want to have a long-term business arrangement.”
[Coming up, in Part II: the nascent work of engaging women’s leadership and addressing the medical infrastructure, the State Department, and the next big challenge for South-Central Iraq.]
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