KIRKUK, IRAQ — For nearly a year, a team of U.S. civilian and military officials has worked from small, sparsely furnished offices here trying to help Iraqi officials with their most urgent needs: building a local government and providing basic public services.
"Provincial reconstruction teams" like this one are expected to be central to the economic component of the new Iraq policy that President Bush plans to unveil today. But in emphasizing such steps, Bush and his aides are courting widespread skepticism. Many U.S. officials and outside Iraq experts view the economic and political portion of Bush's package, like his expected proposal to increase the number of U.S. troops in the country, to be a big gamble with a limited chance of success.
"There's reason to try all of these ideas, and that's why we have tried them before," said one U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Bush had not yet detailed his new strategy. "We're reliving all of the issues that have been discussed since 2003. It's like 'Groundhog Day.' "
The 35-member team in this northern Iraqi city has funneled money to aid and reconstruction projects, helped set up temporary job and job-training programs, and assisted local officials with budgets and other issues. Yet it has been hampered by shortages of skilled staff and money and a lack of security, problems that have undermined previous multibillion-dollar U.S. reconstruction efforts across the country since the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The current Kirkuk effort is being conducted by an eclectic group, including a former member of the British Parliament, a high school chemistry teacher, a commercial pilot, a marketing manager, a retired state trooper and a career diplomat. One member, a lawyer who helps set up local courts, refers to the group as "the Peace Corps with guns."
Some team members caution that the tough problems they face can't be solved through a quick infusion of money or personnel.
"There's no cheap surge," said Kirkuk team leader Jim Bigus, a career diplomat who came to Iraq from Afghanistan, where he was deputy director of the U.S. Bureau for International Narcotics Law Enforcement Affairs. "You've got to get more attractive salaries to people here, and you've got to get more security, and more locations. And that's hard to do quickly."
