Gen. Garner faces huge job rebuilding Iraq

Jay Garner's new job isn't going to be easy. The retired three-star general officially began working in Baghdad Monday as the U.S. man in charge of rebuilding Iraq.

With a staff of about 400, Garner will govern the California-sized country of 23 million people in 18 provinces until the Iraqi people are able to govern themselves. Building a workable government will be challenging, especially considering Iraq's religious and ethnic diversity.

Garner will have a $2.4 billion budget and will be responsible for putting an Iraqi government together and rebuilding the court system and police force. Other areas that he will address include roads, oil fields, health care and schools.

He will be working from the ground up. Even basic services like water and electricity must be restored in many areas.

Garner's work is cut out for him. But those who know him say he is the best man for the job. His credentials support that claim.

The captain of his high-school football team, Garner went on to get a history degree at Florida State University in the early 1960s. He joined the Army with an ROTC commission as a second lieutenant and served two tours in Vietnam.

He became extremely knowledgeable in air defense -- he helped develop the Patriot antimissile system -- and served in Germany in charge of two air defense units. He eventually became chief assistant vice chief of staff of the Army.

But the reason Garner was picked to rebuild Iraq is because of what he did after the 1991 Gulf War. Garner led Operation Provide Comfort, the immense humanitarian effort to help hundreds of thousands of freezing and starving Kurds in northern Iraq who had fled their homes after an unsuccessful uprising against Saddam Hussein's army.

Managing that crisis, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld put it, required skill, compassion and unflappable comportment. Of equal importance, Rumsfeld said, was the respect and thanks Garner won from the Kurds.

But the job will take more than respect, and Garner faces immediate needs.

The country needs money, and lots of it. Iraqi oil officials said earlier this week that the country's key oil refinery in Baghdad is flowing, already pumping 40,000 barrels a day. Even France has come around, agreeing with President Bush that the 12-year-old economic sanctions against Iraq should be lifted. That would free the oil revenue for the rebuilding of the nation.

There are other concerns too. Saddam Hussein may still be alive and in Iraq. There are food shortages, pockets of dissent and looting. Garner has stepped into a very volatile situation.

Despite all of his impressive accomplishments, unifying the war-torn country will be the biggest job of Garner's career. Garner himself says the road will be long and challenging. But putting Iraq on the road to democracy will, in the end, certainly be worth it.