Tales from an Iraqi gripe center

Most of those who approach the RIC are told which hospitals are open, where they can find a carpool to school, which mosques are helping the destitute, and which international aid organizations are in town. They are also advised to call on the mayor - and to think about a solution themselves.

"Ninety-nine percent of those who come here, leave happy," says Capt. Antony Williams, the officer in charge of this RIC. "They get a chance to voice themselves, and even if we don't have a tangible solution to their problem, it must feel good to be heard."

But across town is where ending the culture of dependence will take place in earnest. Mayor Ghanem al-Basso, elected May 5, is just moving into the second floor of the old governor's office. The mayor's staff wander around peering at one another's US-issued name badges - "mayor's adviser," reads one, "mayor's mail carrier" reads another - trying to figure out their new English-language titles.

L. Paul Bremer, the chief civilian administrator for Iraq, met here Monday with Mayor Basso and the town council, and roundly praised them.

"It is great to see what the Iraqi people can do by themselves once they're released from the tyranny they've suffered from for the last 30 years," he said. Kirkuk, planning to hold its own elections next week, is using Mosul as a model.

However weak the mayor and his council might seem in these early days, their existence is, in itself, a big step forward, argues Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, who initiated and oversaw the elections process.

Chosen by representatives of the various ethnic groups in town, the council meets twice a week to discuss everything from what to do with unexploded ordnance lying around town to what to do with the remaining Baathist functionaries. Trade with Syria has been reopened, schools are functioning, and police are patrolling together with the Americans.

Basso, an unassuming former Army major general with a shy smile, meets daily with General Petraeus and the two sign all the city's directives together. The deputy mayor, a Kurd, is consulted on everything.

"For now, we are showing them the way, coaching and mentoring them, and encouraging self-reliance. They want to be democratic but are not always exactly sure how to go about it," says Petraeus, who holds a PhD in international relations from Princeton and seems to be reveling in the real-world experiment here. "Everything we would talk about around the coffeepot at Princeton is being played out in Mosul," he says. "These are extraordinary times, and this can be a big-time success."

"We truly need the Americans now, as we regain our strength and learn how democracy is done," says Basso, adjusting a small Iraqi pin on his lapel. "But when the country is back on its feet and the interim national government is in place, we will revisit this need ... and carry on to success without them."

"Ana Mosulawi" - I am one with the people of Mosul - Petraeus likes to respond, playing on John F. Kennedy's words from a different era of reconstruction in a different place. "Your success is my success."

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