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American Morning

Iraq Reconstruction

Aired January 28, 2004 - 07:17   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Despite the violence, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pressing on with its duties in Iraq. The Corps was dispatched there 10 months ago. In the early days of the U.S. invasion, they fought the oil fires there. Since then, the goal has been to rebuild the country's infrastructure.
The chief of the engineers for the Corps, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers, is just back from Iraq. He joins us this morning.

Nice to see you, General. Thank you for being with us this morning.

LT. GEN. ROBERT FLOWERS, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: It's great to be here, Soledad. And I would like to express my sympathy for the loss of the two CNN employees. It's very tough.

O'BRIEN: Thank you. And, of course, we -- our hearts break when anyone is lost there.

FLOWERS: You're absolutely right.

O'BRIEN: It's a completely heartbreaking situation. But thank you. On behalf of our network, thank you very much.

Let's talk about infrastructure. Your folks have been there 10 months now. What's the infrastructure like now? How has it been improved?

FLOWERS: When we arrived in the country, what we found was an infrastructure that had been very badly neglected for the last 30 years. No money had been put into maintaining the infrastructure. And then, shortly following the war, it was severely looted. And so, there is a lot of reconstruction that needs to be done of water systems...

O'BRIEN: Give me specifics. What are we -- OK. What are we talking about?

FLOWERS: Sewage systems, water systems, electricity, and a key is the oil, getting the oil business started again so that the country has an opportunity to grow economically.

O'BRIEN: So, how much improvement has been made in the 10 months you've been there?

FLOWERS: Well, I think a great deal of improvement, and I believe you will see an enormous difference over the next six months and one year as the real reconstruction efforts kick in. To date, a lot of assessments have been done, lots of isolated work on schools, clinics, some fairly successful work on improving the electrical grid. And those are all very, very helpful.

O'BRIEN: What needs to be done before you can confidently hand this infrastructure over to the government, the new Iraqi government?

FLOWERS: Well, first of all, it's going to take the infusion of capital that was in the supplemental bill to kick-start the restructuring of the country. I think once that takes off, it will accelerate and snowball. More and more Iraqis will be employed. More capital will be flowing. We already see unemployment decreasing. The dinar is getting stronger. And I think within the next six months or a year it will make a large difference.

And I think there's a tie between the infrastructure reconstruction and security. As life gets better...

O'BRIEN: What's that -- yes. What's that?

FLOWERS: As life gets better for the Iraqi people, I think they will become less and less tolerant of foreigners coming in and attacking them and attacking coalition forces. And we see that happening already. And so, I think there's a tie between improving the quality of life, infrastructure, and the security situation.

O'BRIEN: What about the saboteurs? Early on there were so many reports that the power grid and many other areas were being attacked and targeted, partly, I think, to help upset that fragile balance of security.

FLOWERS: Exactly. I think the terrorists have decided to really take us on there, and they know a key to our success is getting an independent Iraq and a democratic Iraq stood up. And the key to that is improving its infrastructure. And so, no small wonder that they decided to attack the infrastructure.

But security on that infrastructure is improving. I have visited five times since the war, and each time I go back security is better.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant General Robert Flowers, thanks for coming in. I know that the weather was a little bit of an issue.

FLOWERS: It was.

O'BRIEN: And we're grateful that you got here this morning.

FLOWERS: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And thanks again for your kind words earlier. We appreciate it.

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 January 28, 2004 - 07:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Despite the violence, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pressing on with its duties in Iraq. The Corps was dispatched there 10 months ago. In the early days of the U.S. invasion, they fought the oil fires there. Since then, the goal has been to rebuild the country's infrastructure.
The chief of the engineers for the Corps, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers, is just back from Iraq. He joins us this morning.

Nice to see you, General. Thank you for being with us this morning.

LT. GEN. ROBERT FLOWERS, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: It's great to be here, Soledad. And I would like to express my sympathy for the loss of the two CNN employees. It's very tough.

O'BRIEN: Thank you. And, of course, we -- our hearts break when anyone is lost there.

FLOWERS: You're absolutely right.

O'BRIEN: It's a completely heartbreaking situation. But thank you. On behalf of our network, thank you very much.

Let's talk about infrastructure. Your folks have been there 10 months now. What's the infrastructure like now? How has it been improved?

FLOWERS: When we arrived in the country, what we found was an infrastructure that had been very badly neglected for the last 30 years. No money had been put into maintaining the infrastructure. And then, shortly following the war, it was severely looted. And so, there is a lot of reconstruction that needs to be done of water systems...

O'BRIEN: Give me specifics. What are we -- OK. What are we talking about?

FLOWERS: Sewage systems, water systems, electricity, and a key is the oil, getting the oil business started again so that the country has an opportunity to grow economically.

O'BRIEN: So, how much improvement has been made in the 10 months you've been there?

FLOWERS: Well, I think a great deal of improvement, and I believe you will see an enormous difference over the next six months and one year as the real reconstruction efforts kick in. To date, a lot of assessments have been done, lots of isolated work on schools, clinics, some fairly successful work on improving the electrical grid. And those are all very, very helpful.

O'BRIEN: What needs to be done before you can confidently hand this infrastructure over to the government, the new Iraqi government?

FLOWERS: Well, first of all, it's going to take the infusion of capital that was in the supplemental bill to kick-start the restructuring of the country. I think once that takes off, it will accelerate and snowball. More and more Iraqis will be employed. More capital will be flowing. We already see unemployment decreasing. The dinar is getting stronger. And I think within the next six months or a year it will make a large difference.

And I think there's a tie between the infrastructure reconstruction and security. As life gets better...

O'BRIEN: What's that -- yes. What's that?

FLOWERS: As life gets better for the Iraqi people, I think they will become less and less tolerant of foreigners coming in and attacking them and attacking coalition forces. And we see that happening already. And so, I think there's a tie between improving the quality of life, infrastructure, and the security situation.

O'BRIEN: What about the saboteurs? Early on there were so many reports that the power grid and many other areas were being attacked and targeted, partly, I think, to help upset that fragile balance of security.

FLOWERS: Exactly. I think the terrorists have decided to really take us on there, and they know a key to our success is getting an independent Iraq and a democratic Iraq stood up. And the key to that is improving its infrastructure. And so, no small wonder that they decided to attack the infrastructure.

But security on that infrastructure is improving. I have visited five times since the war, and each time I go back security is better.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant General Robert Flowers, thanks for coming in. I know that the weather was a little bit of an issue.

FLOWERS: It was.

O'BRIEN: And we're grateful that you got here this morning.

FLOWERS: Thank you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And thanks again for your kind words earlier. We appreciate it.

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