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 Local Iraqi's shop for food at the market place in downtown Tal Afar, Iraq, Sept. 26, 2005. Iraqi army security forces with assistance from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and 82nd Airborne unit are providing security in the Tal Afar region in order to disrupt insurgent safe havens and to clear weapons cache sights in the area of operation. Department of Defense photo.
BAGHDAD — As stock is to soups, provincial reconstruction teams are to the rebuilding of Iraq.
Specifically they help provincial governments develop a transparent and sustained governing capability and to promote security, stability and rule of law.
“There are a lot of hospitals and schools that have opened. A lot of roads have been fixed. There are a lot of positive things happening. The quality of people’s lives has improved,” said Rashid of the Ninewa PRT.
Rashid, who chooses to use only his first name for safety purposes, has been a bi-lingual, bi-cultural PRT advisor for nearly a year.
The Babil PRT, headquartered in Hillah, stood up in November.
"We regard Iraq's success as our own success. We are partners in building this new Iraq. We believe that working together to rebuild Iraq is not only important to the Iraqi people. It is important to the world, because transforming the Greater Middle East is the foremost challenge of our time," said Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad during the team’s inauguration ceremony.  An Iraqi police officer hands out newspapers detailing coalition reconstruction efforts near Foward Operating Base Falcon, Baghdad, Iraq. Department of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jonathan F. Doti
In the Babil province a $4.2 million project is the largest horizontal road project in the city of Hillah in more than a decade and employs 130 Iraqis. The city road will help relieve traffic that runs near historic ruins and tourist destinations.
According to PRT members, the project was conceived, planned and budgeted, delegated and contracted not by the Coalition, nor the PRT, but by the Babil Provincial Council.
“This is their project, and it’s a great one,” said the PRT’s deputy leader, Army Lt. Col. Kirk Stemple. “It’s employed a lot of people, it will help improve the traffic flow around what is a growing city of Hillah, and it will be an economic benefit to those who will have access to small businesses along the route.”
Multi-National Force - Iraq spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV agreed and added the project is important for other reasons.
“The most significant thing about this project is that the fact that this is something that the people down here in the province decided that they wanted,” said Caldwell. “For the past 35 years, they were told what to do. Now it’s coming from the bottom up.”
“The second thing is that we have Iraqis doing it,” he said. “From the local government to the contractor to the workers. They themselves are doing it.”
In March, Baghdad province established its PRT.
“Of all the PRTs, the Baghdad PRT may be the most critical one yet to the accomplishment of our joint objective of a free and prosperous Iraq,” said Khalilzad.
It will strengthen the ability of Iraqis to improve their local communities by rebuilding their civil society. But the core mission remains across the board in all PRTs, to strengthen local government, said the ambassador.
The teams have been in place in Afghanistan since 2004, and now the successful model is working in Iraq.
“The improvement of the provincial governments’ capacity to improve the lives of the Iraqi people is not only important to the United States and to the Iraqis, but to the world as well,” said Khalilzad. “A successful Iraq will reshape the future of the Middle East, and the future of the Middle East will reshape the future of the world.”
The PRT staff is a unique group of military and civilian employees with specialized skills and diverse backgrounds. Soldiers and Sailors have a presence, along with representatives from the State Department and Department of Justice.
“I do elections, so I meet with one of the representatives from the election commission,” said Army 1st Lt. Wade Williams, who has been with the Ninewa team nearly two months.
Despite challenges, Army Col. Bruce Grant, the deputy director of the Ninewa PRT, said the Ninewa government has shown its ability to work as a cohesive unit. He said Mosul is a multi-ethnic crossroads of different cultures due to its location – not far from Syria, Turkey and Iran. The province’s diverse population includes Assyrian Christians, Kurdish Yezidis, Armenians and Turkomen.
“You’ve already got commitment by the leadership to a multi-ethnic society. That is a huge step in this country,” Grant said.
The teams are not just an American venture. The United Kingdom and Italy set up PRTs in Basra and Dhi Qar province respectively. Rounding out the teams are civilian advisors, who speak the local languages and better understand the local culture. Team members try to go out into the province and make at least two contacts per week with their assigned provincial government officials.
Related Link:
Hillah Reconstruction Press Conference
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