The Iraqi Factories Were All Closed
By CBS News producer Mary Walsh
CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin and I spent some time in an American combat post in the city of Samarra a couple years ago. The neighborhood was hostile – the compound was hit regularly with RPG and mortar fire – so the U.S. soldiers based there had learned to "sleep scared," as one general told me.
The living conditions were harsh – no working bathrooms and no hot chow – just Meals Ready to Eat. Getting supplies to this outpost was difficult, so a couple cases of apples would have to do as the only fresh food for the 120 men at this base. But there was plenty of combat. Forty percent of the soldiers had received Purple Hearts.
I've been thinking about this outpost as American soldiers now fan out across Baghdad to try to take back the streets. The current plan is to station U.S. and Iraqi troops in 40 combat outposts in key parts of the city. The idea is to stay in the neighborhoods 24/7 – no retreat to a big fortified American base.
It's hard to believe, but for the first time since this war started, the United States military has taken on the job of securing the civilian population of Baghdad. Four years ago there weren't enough troops to even attempt it. Just after the city fell David Martin and I toured Baghdad neighborhoods with Col. Ted Spain, who was basically the chief of police at the time. He had 900 American MPs for a city of 5.5 million. Was that enough? "I would like to have more, Spain said. "I would always like to have more."
As I look to the future in Iraq, I can't help looking back. I think of Col. Spain that day in May 2003 surrounded by young Iraqi men. "We hate you Americans," they bluntly told him. They also told him they had no work and if he could help get them jobs the sting of defeat would not be so bad.
There's been a lot written about the decisions to disband the Iraqi Army and ban all members of the Baath Party from government jobs. Less has been written about the American decision to close all of Iraq's state-own businesses. For the Iraqi people that meant the Americans took over and virtually every factory closed. (Why? The Americans wanted a market-based economy.)
The Department of Defense has a team of business executives in Iraq now trying to find a way to reverse this. They're inspecting the factories, assessing what it will take to get them open again.
Four years after the start of the war I think of those Iraqi men hanging around in their 'hood, unemployed and hating Americans. When I look at the videotape now I can see how they could easily have become insurgents.
Four years after the start of the war I think of American soldiers sucking it up and going to live in bare-bones barracks with few comforts of home but plenty of incoming fire.
Four years into this war I think of the factories that have been closed all this time. I'm thinking maybe if the neighborhoods get safe, the shops will open; shopkeepers will sell goods and have to order from the factories.
I think they call it last chance to make a sale.
Mary Walsh