U.S. ready to begin rebuilding of Iraqi army within weeks

WASHINGTON -- The task of building a new Iraqi military will get under way in the next few weeks at selected training and recruiting sites, the American administrator of Iraq said Thursday.

Speaking over a satellite video hookup from Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer said the project will serve not only to restore a necessary element of Iraq's long-term security but also address the short-term problem of hundreds of thousands of former Iraqi soldiers being without work since the war.

Providing jobs

Unemployment more broadly is a "tremendous problem" in postwar Iraq, Bremer said, with far more than half the working-age population jobless. He said a recently announced $100 million emergency construction program was the most efficient way of getting people back to work quickly.

"This is where our greatest challenge lies, and we must now create jobs for Iraqis," Bremer said in a 30-minute question-and-answer session with reporters at the Pentagon. He made the same point earlier Thursday in a similar session with members of the House Armed Services Committee.

"This economy was flat on its back before the war and it's in even worse shape now," he told committee members.

The problem for members of Iraq's former conscript army, which Bremer disbanded along with the better-trained Republican Guard and other elements of the Iraqi military, is especially acute.

Bremer said there were about 375,000 Iraqi conscript soldiers before the war. Some number of those who survived will undergo U.S. training, probably starting in July, and a portion of those will be selected to provide security at facilities currently being guarded by U.S. troops, he said.

Sites for military training and recruiting have been identified, and former Iraq soldiers will be hired to clear and prepare them for use, Bremer said in his remarks to the House committee.

"So we plan to move out rather smartly in trying to stand up this new Iraqi army," he said.

Many of the questions Bremer took from the Armed Services Committee members focused on the security problems facing U.S. troops and the prospects for turning Iraq over to the Iraqis.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the ranking Democrat on the panel, said he is deeply troubled by the security situation.

"Not a day goes by when one of our soldiers isn't killed, and we need a plan for security in Iraq, in part to protect our troops but also to bring stability to the Iraqi people," Skelton said. He demanded the administration spell out the size and duration of the U.S. troop commitment there.

"Providing security is a long-term commitment; we know that," Skelton said. "We need a plan for how many U.S. troops will be needed -- how many months, how many years to come."

Bremer told Pentagon reporters there is no way to know how long the United States will have to remain involved in Iraq's reconstruction. The key, he said, is getting to the point where a new Iraqi constitution is written and ratified and national elections are held.

"My guess is that it's going to be a substantial amount of time but whether that's in maybe months or years, it would depend on developments. I don't think we should set any artificial deadlines," he said.

Bremer made these other points:

-- It probably is too early to hold a national reconciliation conference. "My impression in conversations I've had so far is that the Iraqis are simply still too understandably emotionally delighted to be rid of Saddam and the Baathists that they may not yet be ready to undertake that step."

-- The nature of the economic system that Iraq establishes will be entirely up to the Iraqis. "If they choose socialism, that will be their business. My guess is that's not going to happen."

-- The failure so far to capture or otherwise account for Saddam Hussein has hurt the U.S. occupation effort. "I think it does make a difference because it allows the Baathists to go around in the bazaars and in the villages, which they are doing, saying Saddam is alive and he's going to come back," he said. "The effect of that is to make it more difficult for people who are afraid of the Baathists -- and that's just about everybody -- ... to come forward and cooperate with us."