Joe Pitts, January 18, 2008

During the holiday recess in Congress, I had the opportunity to travel to Iraq to visit with commanders and troops and see first hand the status of U.S. efforts there. The most important thing I took away from the visit is that the surge is working. General David Petraeus has crafted a sophisticated counterinsurgency strategy that has served a serious blow to the insurgents and allowed Iraqi and U.S. forces to bring security and stability to much of the country.

However, all of the gains made by our military will be for naught if Iraq cannot make progress in building a civil society that chooses peace over violence. Much of this will depend on the ability of Iraqi politicians to create consensus on important factors of national reconciliation. However, the United States does not have to stand idly by as Iraq attempts to build a free, open, and democratic society. In fact, if Iraq is going to succeed as a democracy, the United States will have to make a substantial investment of resources in aiding the Iraqis in building the most basic elements of a civil society

One of the most important ways the United States is working to assist the Iraqis in creating a sustainable society is through the efforts of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, or PRTs. The PRTs work closely in local communities to help the provincial governments build institutions that are necessary for democracy. The projects they undertake vary widely. They help to build schools and hospitals; they assist in confidence building between ethnic and religious groups within the communities in which they operate; they are helping to set up courts; they are working to educate local political leaders who have never been a part of democracy.

I think it is difficult for Americans to understand the level to which Iraqi civic society was decimated by the rule of Saddam Hussein. There are no Thomas Jeffersons or James Madisons left in Iraq; they were all killed by Saddam Hussein and his regime. The great majority of the Iraqi people have not seen anything resembling democracy during their lifetime. There will be a learning curve, and this is an area in which the United States can help. The PRTs are at the forefront of this effort.

The makeup of the PRTs is diverse. It includes individuals from the Department of State, USAID, Coalition military personnel, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

During 2007, the number of PRT personnel was doubled until it reached a total of 600 by the end of the year. The PRT program was relatively late coming to Iraq and was only just recently fully staffed.

Soon, U.S. commanders will begin to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq. During a meeting with General Petraeus in Baghdad, he explained to us that this was still the plan based on current conditions on the ground. This week, Pentagon officials acknowledged that all 18 Iraqi provinces could be under the control of Iraqi forces by the end of the year. U.S. troops will still remain for support and continued training, but the role for our military is decreasing as Iraqi troops stand up to take over responsibility for security.

While I was in Iraq, I met with senior PRT officials in Baghdad, and I traveled to Mosul, in Ninewa province, to meet with a local PRT group there. The most concerning thing I heard from PRT officials is that they will run out of funding come Spring if further resources are not allocated for their efforts. This would be a massive mistake for U.S. policy in Iraq.

After all the U.S. has invested in Iraq, this would be a travesty. We owe it to the people of Iraq to see through what we began when we toppled Saddam Hussein from power. We owe it to the soldiers who have given their lives fighting in Iraq to commit the resources necessary to see the mission through by helping Iraq become a functioning democratic society. The PRTs will go a long way in helping to accomplish this goal. Now Congress will need to act to pass legislation to fully fund the efforts of the PRTs.

Congressman Joe Pitts, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, which includes Lancaster County and parts of Chester County and Berks County.