Despite the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons last week in Mosul, US attempts to pacify and rebuild Iraq are floundering. Jihan El-Alaily reports from Baghdad With daily attacks on US forces in broad daylight in central Baghdad and centred in what has come to be known as the "Sunni triangle" to the north and west of Baghdad, the US forces are increasingly frustrated in their attempts to stop the war and focus on recovery. Over the weekend five US soldiers were killed, four of them in a pair of grenade attacks. Insurgents have also targeted infrastructure used by the US military. In an unusual strike on Monday, attackers floated an explosive device down the river on a palm log and detonated it under a bridge between Baquba and Tikrit, both hotbeds of resistance. With such relentless attacks averaging 12 a day throughout the country, many US officials are beginning to fear a grinding, asymmetric and expensive war which is already costing the Pentagon an estimated $4 billion a month. Top Pentagon officials who visited Iraq this week have acknowledged some setbacks and even adopted a more revisionist attitude. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while visiting India following a brief stop over in Tikrit, said that central Iraq from Baghdad to Tikrit is still a war zone. "Eighty per cent of the security incidents are happening there," he said. Myers added that this was not to contradict the declaration by President George Bush on the first of May that major combat was over in Iraq. The general qualified Bush's "specific language" as referring only to "major conflicts". Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D Wolfowitz conceded recently after a visit to Iraq, that some post-war strategic planning by defence officials "turned out to underestimate the problem". Many analysts believe that the US administration had underestimated the extent of armed resistance in its plans for occupying and rebuilding Iraq. Furthermore, the optimistic scenario did not anticipate the impact of looting on governance, while overestimating the willingness of Iraqis to continue embracing the coalition forces as liberators. Retired Army Lt General Jay Garner, who was appointed the first civilian administrator of occupied Iraq, talked in a recent interview with Washington about the poor preparation for the war's aftermath. He said that his staff spent up to 40 per cent of their time drawing contingency plans for humanitarian crises, food shortages, chemical weapons attacks and oil field fires. While he was recently in Washington, Ambassador Paul Bremer, the chief US administrator for Iraq, won an endorsement from President Bush for his Iraq reconstruction plan. The plan that he presented included a "detailed timetable and clear benchmarks" to restore security, revive the economy and establish a democratic political system. Many fear that the political process through which Iraqis hope to gain full sovereignty will be completely overshadowed by efforts to stabilise Iraq militarily. Mr Wolfowitz put a new emphasis on the current fighting in Iraq by saying to Fox News Sunday, "the battle to win the peace in Iraq now is the central battle in the war on terrorism." Many in the international community, particularly the Germans and the French, have voiced their opinion that winning the peace is much more difficult than winning the war. Consistent with the French position prior to the war, the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin recently said "our belief has been that the solution is political rather than military. We consider it essential promptly to encourage a return to Iraq's complete sovereignty." The UN, which is helping facilitate consensus building among Iraqi factions and between Iraqis and the Coalition Provisional Authority, is arguing that the newly formed Interim Governing Council (IGC) must be empowered to deliver tangible results. Such statements have been cautiously welcomed by US officials. The UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Iraq Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello is believed here to have played an instrumental role in persuading Bremer to give the governing council more executive authority than was originally planned. Mr Vieira de Mello, with ample experience in post-conflict situations ranging from Kosovo to East Timor, has cautioned that Iraqis' "legitimate impatience" with occupation must be accommodated. "There will need to be a clear timetable, laid out as soon as possible, for the earliest possible restoration of sovereignty," he said to the recent Security Council meeting on Iraq. This week the 25 member IGC met to deliberate over the sensitive issues of who is to head the Council, the selection of interim ministers and the constitutional process. Some members expressed a preference for technocratic interim ministers while others are pushing for political appointments. On top of this, the CPA has its own list of preferred candidates also. The outcome which is expected by the end of this week is to reflect the relative political weight of delegates -- some of whom have no true constituencies. But most significantly, the announcement will indicate whether the CPA is ready to vest the IGC with meaningful executive powers or not. IGC member and Secretary General of Iraqi National Accord (INA) Dr Ayad Allawi has asked Arab governments to fully support the Iraqi transition towards democratic rule. He asked for assistance in the process of drafting a new constitution and in training the Iraqi police in civil policing. Dr Allawi, who met in Baghdad this week with an Egyptian presidential envoy, will visit Cairo and several Gulf States next week. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that at the top of his agenda with Arab officials was discussion of a request by the IGC to represent Iraq in the coming Arab foreign ministers meeting in September.
