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Rice's Rebuilding Plan Hits Snags
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Who will pay what for the teams and their facilities also is unresolved, officials said, with State looking to Defense to pick up much of the bill while Defense Department officials portray the PRTs essentially as a State Department activity.
Initially, the PRTs will work with a pot of $150 million in State Department funds, or about $10 million per team to fund aid activities, though some of that has been spent. State Department officials also want to better coordinate the spending of emergency relief funds held by military commanders, also about $10 million per province.
Another tough issue is whether to use the military or contractors to provide protection. State officials would prefer to use troops to ensure security, arguing that contractors are expensive. Besides, they say, the teams are intended as civilian-military efforts, each headed by a civilian with a military colonel as deputy.
Embassy regional offices in the past have been protected by private contractors. Embassy representatives who have worked with provincial authorities have tended to keep the timing of their visits unpredictable and episodic for security reasons. Under the PRT concept, such contacts are expected to increase, as will the risks.
But with the Pentagon eager to draw down forces in Iraq, defense officials are reluctant to take on new or expanded assignments, particularly those seen by some as having more to do with reconstruction than combating terrorism.
"We're very much in the watch-and-wait mode right now," said a senior military officer at the Pentagon. "Secretary [Donald H.] Rumsfeld has spoken of the importance of not stepping too far forward in the area of reconstruction just yet."
Officials with both the embassy and U.S. military command in Iraq are expected to produce a formal assessment later this month of the initial performance of the first three PRTs. After that, Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, will make recommendations to Washington on how to proceed, officials said.
One State Department official predicted that once local commanders see the value of the PRTs, they will be willing to provide security and resolve other problems. But, he conceded, "decisions [in Washington] could slow or detour or modify the basic concept."
