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CNN Live At Daybreak

What's Next?

Aired April 14, 2003 - 05:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Of course the battle for Tikrit is ongoing. And while the U.S.-led coalition is chasing Saddam Hussein's regime into the dark places of Iraq, the work of rebuilding the nation torn by war is going to require significant attention too.
Our Candy Crowley looks at some of the problems in doing just that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What next?

SERMID AL-SARRAF, FUTURE OF IRAQ PROJECT: While they are welcoming the troops and they are savoring this moment of freedom and liberation, at some point they're going to want to have direct control over their own affairs.

CROWLEY: In the pre-war months, post-war Iraq was the source of some disagreement between the president and the prime minister, great disagreement between the State Department and the Pentagon and the usual disagreement between the U.S. and the U.N., philosophical, bureaucratic struggles with little meaning where it matters.

RICK BARTON, STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: All politics is local and so it very quickly it's are the schools working, are the teachers getting paid, where are the police because it sure would be nice to have somebody here, are they getting paid?

CROWLEY: Post-war Iraq will need food, water, medicine. It needs roads rebuilt and buildings repaired. It needs electricity. It needs phone service. And someone will have to clear away the remnants of war so that Iraqi children will grow old in the peace. And oh yes, they'll be needing a government, too.

It is an enormous, expensive, manpower intensive job. Reason enough, some experts believe, to move from military to civilian control as soon as possible.

BARTON: You need a global pool of talent. The U.N. has identified some of those people. You need the resources of people who don't want to come in through the United States military, such as a number of our allies. The U.S. doesn't really want to own this job. If you walk down the street, there are very few Americans who say yes, cut back on my local school because I'm ready to pay for that teacher in downtown Baghdad. So there's a burden sharing here. CROWLEY: For now, the burden rests on the U.S., Britain and this man, retired General Jay Garner who will serve as Iraq's civil administrator. It's a big job, but Garner has dreams to match.

GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.), U.S. IRAQ RECON. ADM.: This country has great vibrance to it and it has an educated population. It was the jewel of the Middle East at one time. It can be the jewel of the Middle East again.

CROWLEY: Garner and the U.S. team will take control of Iraq's most sensitive ministries, oil, intelligence, finance, but it is possible lower-level members of Saddam's Baath Party will be able to keep their ministry jobs.

AL-SARRAF: We need to distinguish between just those who are affiliated with the Baath Party and those who actually committed crimes in their positions.

CROWLEY: For almost a year, Sermid Al-Sarraf, a Muslim of Iraqi decent, has been part of a working group of Iraqi Americans and exiles putting together recommendations for the State Department on post- Saddam justice in Iraq.

AL-SARRAF: We have to be realistic in Iraq that many people joined the Baath Party out of sheer survival. They were not able to keep their positions or they're not able to send their children to school had they not joined the Baath Party.

CROWLEY: The first order of business in post-war Iraq is order itself, the bailiwick of coalition forces. But there's a difference between tracking down Baath leaders, wiping out pockets of resistance, searching for weapons of mass destruction and street patrol.

BARTON: It's a difficult transition for a 23-year-old very well trained to fight a war to suddenly be kind of somebody who's responsible for hey, put that mattress back in that -- in that showroom. This is the arms and the training are not really appropriate. So we really have to have a lighter presence.

CROWLEY: It's not just a matter of training or suitability, it is also a matter of politics in a repressed society where trust is in shorter supply than water.

AL-SARRAF: There needs to be a legitimate Iraqi civilian authority that can come in and begin to reinstitute a police force that has changed its orientation from serving and protecting the regime to now serving and protecting the people.

CROWLEY: Time ultimately will be the difference between liberation and occupation, so the Bush administration wants an Iraqi face on reconstruction ASAP.

GARNER: All through Iraq you'll find -- you'll find the true leaders, true men and women who are leaders and courageous. They'll begin to stand up and they'll provide the leadership for the rest of their people. CROWLEY: Until elections can be held, it would be an interim authority of newly freed and formerly exiled Iraqis, a simple concept with the permutations of a Rubik's Cube. A recent CIA study warned that in-country Iraqis will view exiles with skepticism. Sarraf does not disagree.

Al-SARRAF: In order to establish the legitimacy, it's important that the administration not even be viewed or even have the appearance of pushing forward any individual from the outside. I think that would be a fatal mistake.

CROWLEY: It is evident in so many places at so many levels for so many reasons that the cost of this war is immeasurable. How the peace is handled will determine if it was worth it.

BARTON: Modern wars have shown that to us that if you really want to get a measure of a war, the measure comes in how you win the peace. We know who's going to win most of these wars now and it's happening so can we actually leave an imprint there that's lasting, that shows that we've made a difference. And so for me the key issue here is do the sacrifices of war -- are the -- are the sacrifices of war matched by the investments of peace and that's our -- that's our test right now.

CROWLEY: Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 14, 2003 - 05:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Of course the battle for Tikrit is ongoing. And while the U.S.-led coalition is chasing Saddam Hussein's regime into the dark places of Iraq, the work of rebuilding the nation torn by war is going to require significant attention too.
Our Candy Crowley looks at some of the problems in doing just that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What next?

SERMID AL-SARRAF, FUTURE OF IRAQ PROJECT: While they are welcoming the troops and they are savoring this moment of freedom and liberation, at some point they're going to want to have direct control over their own affairs.

CROWLEY: In the pre-war months, post-war Iraq was the source of some disagreement between the president and the prime minister, great disagreement between the State Department and the Pentagon and the usual disagreement between the U.S. and the U.N., philosophical, bureaucratic struggles with little meaning where it matters.

RICK BARTON, STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: All politics is local and so it very quickly it's are the schools working, are the teachers getting paid, where are the police because it sure would be nice to have somebody here, are they getting paid?

CROWLEY: Post-war Iraq will need food, water, medicine. It needs roads rebuilt and buildings repaired. It needs electricity. It needs phone service. And someone will have to clear away the remnants of war so that Iraqi children will grow old in the peace. And oh yes, they'll be needing a government, too.

It is an enormous, expensive, manpower intensive job. Reason enough, some experts believe, to move from military to civilian control as soon as possible.

BARTON: You need a global pool of talent. The U.N. has identified some of those people. You need the resources of people who don't want to come in through the United States military, such as a number of our allies. The U.S. doesn't really want to own this job. If you walk down the street, there are very few Americans who say yes, cut back on my local school because I'm ready to pay for that teacher in downtown Baghdad. So there's a burden sharing here. CROWLEY: For now, the burden rests on the U.S., Britain and this man, retired General Jay Garner who will serve as Iraq's civil administrator. It's a big job, but Garner has dreams to match.

GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.), U.S. IRAQ RECON. ADM.: This country has great vibrance to it and it has an educated population. It was the jewel of the Middle East at one time. It can be the jewel of the Middle East again.

CROWLEY: Garner and the U.S. team will take control of Iraq's most sensitive ministries, oil, intelligence, finance, but it is possible lower-level members of Saddam's Baath Party will be able to keep their ministry jobs.

AL-SARRAF: We need to distinguish between just those who are affiliated with the Baath Party and those who actually committed crimes in their positions.

CROWLEY: For almost a year, Sermid Al-Sarraf, a Muslim of Iraqi decent, has been part of a working group of Iraqi Americans and exiles putting together recommendations for the State Department on post- Saddam justice in Iraq.

AL-SARRAF: We have to be realistic in Iraq that many people joined the Baath Party out of sheer survival. They were not able to keep their positions or they're not able to send their children to school had they not joined the Baath Party.

CROWLEY: The first order of business in post-war Iraq is order itself, the bailiwick of coalition forces. But there's a difference between tracking down Baath leaders, wiping out pockets of resistance, searching for weapons of mass destruction and street patrol.

BARTON: It's a difficult transition for a 23-year-old very well trained to fight a war to suddenly be kind of somebody who's responsible for hey, put that mattress back in that -- in that showroom. This is the arms and the training are not really appropriate. So we really have to have a lighter presence.

CROWLEY: It's not just a matter of training or suitability, it is also a matter of politics in a repressed society where trust is in shorter supply than water.

AL-SARRAF: There needs to be a legitimate Iraqi civilian authority that can come in and begin to reinstitute a police force that has changed its orientation from serving and protecting the regime to now serving and protecting the people.

CROWLEY: Time ultimately will be the difference between liberation and occupation, so the Bush administration wants an Iraqi face on reconstruction ASAP.

GARNER: All through Iraq you'll find -- you'll find the true leaders, true men and women who are leaders and courageous. They'll begin to stand up and they'll provide the leadership for the rest of their people. CROWLEY: Until elections can be held, it would be an interim authority of newly freed and formerly exiled Iraqis, a simple concept with the permutations of a Rubik's Cube. A recent CIA study warned that in-country Iraqis will view exiles with skepticism. Sarraf does not disagree.

Al-SARRAF: In order to establish the legitimacy, it's important that the administration not even be viewed or even have the appearance of pushing forward any individual from the outside. I think that would be a fatal mistake.

CROWLEY: It is evident in so many places at so many levels for so many reasons that the cost of this war is immeasurable. How the peace is handled will determine if it was worth it.

BARTON: Modern wars have shown that to us that if you really want to get a measure of a war, the measure comes in how you win the peace. We know who's going to win most of these wars now and it's happening so can we actually leave an imprint there that's lasting, that shows that we've made a difference. And so for me the key issue here is do the sacrifices of war -- are the -- are the sacrifices of war matched by the investments of peace and that's our -- that's our test right now.

CROWLEY: Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com