To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: U.S. Agency for International Development Press Office, +1-202-712-4320
While world leaders in late 2003 were debating the feasibility of direct national elections, Tobin J. Bradley, a 29-year-old Foreign Service officer living in a tent in the Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, was busy organizing voting in cities across the south. Bradley organized 15 direct local elections, including one that brought the first woman to public office in the south. His work demonstrated that the national ration-card system could serve as a method to validate eligible voters and that conservative Iraqis could be convinced to allow women to vote. Bradley traveled throughout the province meeting with local interest groups and organizing elections.
TALLIL, IRAQ -- America's media and pundits' view of Iraq has been too Baghdad-centric. This year, they have judged whether the U.S. surge succeeded almost solely by looking at violence levels in the city. Critics also pointed to the Baghdad government's failure to produce reconciliation legislation as a bellwether for the country. But progress does not have to be measured by the security and politics of Baghdad alone. Maybe it is time to reframe the debate. Maybe the real trend line is elsewhere.
The standing up and mentoring of indigenous armies and police - once the province of Special Forces - is now a key mission for the military as a whole.' As U.S. forces gradually hand over security responsibilities to the host nation, success becomes less about what we can achieve than what we can encourage and promote our host nation partners to achieve. Because of the lack of sectarian violence in southern Iraq, we could rely on the Iraqi Security Forces to secure the population in ways that may not be applicable to Baghdad, Mosul, or Kandahar.
BAGHDAD - Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq bone dry for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farm land, threatening drinking water supplies and intensifying fierce sandstorms that have coated the country in brown dust. The drought has dealt a harsh blow to hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, the government's budget suffered a double-hit: Lower than expected oil prices have crimped revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import most of the crops, especially wheat and rice, to meet domestic demand.
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