Provincial Reconstruction Teams Progress In Iraq

Monday morning, the State Department hosted a videoconference for the media on the topic of provincial reconstruction teams embedded with troops in Iraq. The two sequential linkups were with Fallujah and Baghdad, each site fronting both a civilian and military EPRT leader who gave brief statements and answered questions.

Col. Simcock of the 6th Marine Regiment in Fallujah and Col. Bannister of the Army’s 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in Baghdad credited the recent troop surge with enabling a more secure environment in which the non-military aspects of the reconstruction efforts can take place. Bannister, whose division has 2 million of Baghdad’s 8 million population in its area of responsibility said that the US troop surge, combined with a coalition troop surge and the addition of an Iraqi security brigade had reduced the size of his division’s battlespace by two-thirds.

He also referred to the embedded provincial reconstruction team as a “valuable force multiplier”. Embedded PRTs work at a level down from Provincial Reconstruction Teams in the sense that they operate at a district level rather than a provincial level. The recent troop surge was accompanied by a doubling of PRT personnel, who typically come from the Department of State, USAID, Coalition military personnel, Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and contractor companies.

The civilian team leaders taking part in the videoconference were both from the Department of State, Stephen Fakan (Fallujah) having a background in providing security services for embassies, and Eric Whitaker (Baghdad) most recently being involved with refugee affairs, and economic/commercial affairs in Africa. Whitaker’s team includes people with expertise in industry, governance, city planning, and finance. Fakan noted that among the Coalition team members on his EPRT, some had expertise “in their real lives” in public health and small business management.

Media questions for the Fallujah team revolved around how long the troops expect to be there (as long as it takes to complete the mission); the strength of al-Qaeda (in some areas they are defeated but there are still attacks in Fallujah and surrounding areas); who provides security (the military provides it, there are no private contractors).

Questions for the Baghdad team included how frequently are you able to get out (3-4 times a week in convoys, the brigade supplies security); how are you dealing with corruption in government (the example given in response was the Army’s concentration on cutting down the length of the lines for petrol and propane gas, so that those in line don’t get intimidated, while waiting, into supporting the black market instead).

--ENDS—

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