By Josh White and Griff Witte
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — As Iraq descends further into violence and disarray, the Pentagon is turning to a weapon some believe should have been used years ago: jobs.
Members of a small Pentagon task force have gone to the most dangerous areas of Iraq over the past six months to bring life to nearly 200 state-owned factories abandoned by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Their goal is to employ tens of thousands of Iraqis in coming months, part of a plan to reduce soaring unemployment and lessen the violence that has crippled progress.
Defense officials and military commanders say that festering unemployment — at 70 percent in some areas — is leading Iraqi men to take cash from insurgents to place bombs on roads or take shots at U.S. troops.
Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the top U.S. field commander in Iraq, said that tackling unemployment could do far more good than adding U.S. combat troops or more aggressively pursuing an elusive enemy. He said the project to open the factories and stimulate local economies is long overdue and was born "of desperation."
"We need to put the angry young men to work," Chiarelli said in a phone interview from Baghdad.
The CPA initially hoped private investors would buy or lease the state factories, but that did not happen as security faltered. The factories were languishing when the Pentagon task force examined them this fall.
Blasts kill 57:
Helicopter accident: A Marine helicopter made a hard landing Monday in a remote area of Anbar province, injuring 18 of the 21 people on board.
Soldiers killed: The military announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad on Sunday. As of Monday, at least 2,934 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war.
Iraqis killed: At least 66 people were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq — including 46 men bound, blindfolded and shot to death in Baghdad.
Bush holds meetings: President Bush holds a videoconference today with military leaders in Iraq, part of a series of high-level meetings to help him develop "a new way forward" on the war that could be announced in a speech to the nation as early as next week. On Monday, Bush met with retired Army generals Wayne Downing, Jack Keane and Barry McCaffrey.
Plea bargain: Army Spc. Suzanne Swift, 22, of Eugene, Ore., who said she went AWOL from duty in Iraq because she was sexually harassed by officers, has accepted a plea bargain, Fort Lewis officials said Monday. Swift, who was facing a court-martial, would be eligible for an honorable discharge once she completes her five years of service.
The Associated Press and USA Today
Two car bombs targeting day laborers looking for work exploded today in central Baghdad, killing at least 57 people and wounding more than 150, police said.
Pentagon officials say the vast majority of former Iraqi factory workers are still unemployed. A small portion of the work force receives government stipends, but the pay system is badly flawed and provides about 20 percent of what the workers would make if fully employed, the officials said.
Economic development is a departure from the military's usual missions, but officials think the Defense Department's heft as a consumer of goods and services can boost the effort. The department has been reaching out to U.S. companies that can place large orders for products from Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England set the task force in motion in June after Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense, returned from a visit to Iraq the month before.
Brinkley, who returned Monday night from a trip to Iraq with his team, said thousands of Iraqis lost their jobs and the ability to support their families when CPA projections dimmed. Unrest followed the absence of work.
"After three years of unemployment in excess of 50 percent, there are no people in the world that wouldn't be undergoing violence and militias," Brinkley said.
So far, members of the task force have visited 26 factories in some of the worst areas of the country, traveling to Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, Najaf and Ramadi to inspect facilities that make cement, tile, rubber and textiles. They have identified 10 factories they think could be open and employing more than 11,000 Iraqis within the next month.
Brinkley said he hopes at least 25 percent of the nearly $4 billion the Defense Department spends each year to support troops in Iraq could be spent on buying supplies from Iraqi companies — orders that previously have gone to firms in neighboring countries, such as Jordan and Kuwait.
Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose office has been critical of the rebuilding effort, said defense officials are "right on target in pushing this."
Bowen said defense officials recently met with about two dozen key business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to gauge private industry's interest in the program. He acknowledged that corruption and lack of security remain major obstacles to U.S. commercial investment in Iraq but said he is impressed that business leaders "recognize that and are still interested in moving forward."
Caterpillar, a $36 billion construction-equipment firm, is one of the first U.S. companies to show interest.
Dow Chemical, a $46 billion firm that sells plastics and other products in more than 175 countries, is also considering what supplies it can purchase from Iraq.
Gerald Shaheen, a Caterpillar group president and chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said he probably would be looking for low-tech supplies, such as hinges, but said the program dovetails with the company's interest in expanding opportunities in the Middle East.
"But I can't look at this solely as a business proposition. I've already got suppliers. I'm doing this because I think there's a social responsibility not only to the Iraqi people but to our troops," Shaheen said.
"It's a concept that common sense would dictate to pursue," said Rep. William D. Delahunt, D-Mass., incoming chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee. "I think the key question is: Is it too late?"