In Iraq's northwest, an emerging model

MUHALLABIYAH, IRAQ – It was one of Capt. Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchison's first forays into what he calls "the Wild West," a remote stretch of territory his company patrols near the Syrian border in northern Iraq. Already, he was under fire.

SIFTING AND WINNOWING: Army Capt. Kenneth Hutchison examines a Baath Party membership list with the help of his interpreter (right) while the town secretary of Muhallabiyah looks on. Captain Hutchison recently helped supervise the selection of the town's council. ANN SCOTT TYSON

Part 1 – 09/22/03 Iraq's simmering south Shiite heartland simmers. Part 2 – 09/23/03 In Iraq's northwest, an emerging model Grassroots efforts put this region ahead of the postwar curve. Part 3 – 09/24/03 Iraq's restive 'Sunni Triangle' Discerning friend from foe is stymieing the US-led occupation.

Reporters on the Job The Monitor gives the story behind the story.

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The young officer was meeting with about 50 Iraqi mukhtars, or headmen, in the ethnically mixed town of Muhallabiyah, and complaints were flying like bullets: Flour prices were too low. Roads needed repair. Weapons were everywhere.

As the voices swelled, two wizened elders stood up. Nothing, they declared, had changed since the Americans invaded.

"Saddam! Saddam! We die for Saddam!" they chanted defiantly. All eyes turned to Captain Hutchison. With effort, the 6-foot-plus Kansan kept his cool.

"Great," he retorted. "If you see Saddam, tell me where he is!"

Apparently, composure paid off for Hutchison, whose mission includes nudging Muhallabiyah toward self-rule. Several weeks later in July, he helped the town pull off its first election - or "selection" as US commanders here put it. With a show of hands, 54 representatives from Muhallabiyah and surrounding villages voted into office a provisional town council and mayor.

To be sure, the process was far from perfect. An hour before the votes, Hutchison had to scratch off the ballot the names of four top-ranking Baath Party members and usher them out. "That," he says "gave me some heartburn."

Whether running a local council election, or training a civil defense force, soldiers such as Hutchison are on the front lines of US efforts to bring a semblance of self-governance to postwar Iraq. Armed with little more than M-16s and soldierly ingenuity, 20-something GIs are engaged across the country in thousands of daily tug of wars with the Iraqis they are ostensibly mentoring.

Many Iraqis bristle at the American supervision. Proud and often resentful, even some who are supportive of the US-led occupation stress that they are eager to do things independently, their way. Americans, for their part, voice frustration over what they see as a lack of honesty, civic-mindedness, and initiative among some Iraqis they work with.

Nowhere is the grass-roots push and pull of forging a postwar administration more apparent than in northwestern Iraq.

Here, the 18,000-strong 101st Airborne Division commanded by Maj. Gen. David Petraeus has taken the lead in nation building. It has been the first to train a wide range of new Iraqi forces including infantry, border patrols, and security guards. It has organized local elections in a majority of towns. To stimulate business, General Petraeus ordered the reopening of trade across the Syrian border and is facilitating the first major privatization deal outside Baghdad, a multi- million-dollar hotel contract.

The division has often acted in advance of the civilian-run occupation authority in Baghdad, which for months had virtually no presence in Iraq's 18 provinces.

"We've been a bit ahead of the power curve," Petraeus told the Monitor. Some within the US military worry, however, that as Baghdad asserts itself, it threatens to re-impose the top-down bureaucratic structure that stifled initiative under former president Saddam Hussein. Local officials in Mosul and other cities are also pressing for Baghdad to decentralize power and give them a greater say in national affairs.

The 101st was able to plunge into the nitty-gritty work of putting Iraqis back in charge soon after it rolled into Nineveh Province in April. Iraqi commanders surrendered, leaving the region relatively untouched by the war, and attacks on US troops were minimal.

"The bottom line is, you need to have local leadership at all levels, otherwise there is a vacuum," Petraeus says. "We recognized that ... it would help enormously to have an interim government in place to put an Iraqi face on things."

The ethnic complexity, wealth, and fierce local pride of Nineveh's population make the work of transferring power to Iraqis here challenging. Known for its ancient trade routes, wheat, and barley, the border region is dominated by Mosul, a 3,000-year-old city of medieval shrines and walls that is now home to about 2 million people, including Arabs, Armenians, Kurds, and Turkmens.

A primary recruiting ground for senior Iraqi Army and government officials, Mosul had influential ties with the Hussein regime, and several leaders on the US most-wanted list took refuge here. Last week, Hussein's defense minister surrendered after Petraeus personally guaranteed his safety.

Still, some 101st commanders are so confident in the North's progress toward self-sufficiency that they question the need for multinational troops to relieve them when their rotation here ends next February or March.

"We've made such headway.... I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that we won't need a coalition in the north," says Col. Joseph Anderson, commander of the division's 2nd Brigade, which oversees Mosul. In the end, much will depend on soldiers like Hutchison.

Next: The leading edge of Iraqi rebuilding