US lawmakers expressed displeasure with the way the George W. Bush administration has managed postwar Iraq, saying that the goal of stabilizing and democratizing the country has been put at risk by inadequate US planning.

At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairman Richard Lugar said he was "concerned that the administration's initial stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been inadequate."

"The planning for peace was much less developed than the planning for war," the Indiana Republican said.

Democratic Senator Chris Dodd adopted an even harsher tone. The Bush administration, Dodd said "can't tell us how long they believe we will need to remain, what other countries will do to assist us in these efforts ... and most importantly, what it is likely to end up costing the American people."

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz conceded that the US government has gotten off to a slow start in rebuilding the country in the weeks since the conclusion of the war.

"We knew that certain systems and services we take for granted here would not exist in a formerly totalitarian regime. And we also knew that we could not fully understand the scope of Iraq's needs until we were in the country and on the ground," he said.

Wolfowitz echoed assertions made by other Bush administration officials that the situation in Iraq is less chaotic than portrayed in media accounts, and that problems stem from the abuses of the Saddam Hussein regime.

"The task before us is more about construction than reconstruction -- the building of a society that was allowed to rot from within for decades by one of the world's worst tyrants," Wolfowitz said.

But he added that critics condemning the military's performance are using "a standard of unachievable perfection.

"There is no plan that could have achieved all the extraordinary speed of this one, and at the same time been able to flood the country with military policemen.

"I think we made the right choices -- choices that saved both American and Iraqi lives and prevented damage to the environment and to the resources of the Iraqi people."

General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified that while nation-building is a major US objective in Iraq, security remains the number-one goal, even three weeks after Bush declared major combat operations there over.

"Security is the military coalition's highest priority," Pace said.

He added that, on the whole, military officials say are pleased with their achievements in building a civil society in Iraq.

"On balance the fact that you did not have the oil fields destroyed, you did not have weapons shot at neighboring countries, the fact you were able to quickly get into Baghdad," Pace said.

"That outweighed the concerns of not having initially enough forces on the ground to prevent things like looting."

The Senate hearing on conditions in postwar Iraq comes as the country faces even greater uncertainty, with the announcement earlier that General Tommy Franks -- who conducted the war in Iraq and managed the immediate postwar period -- will soon retire.

His successor will assume command at a time of growing concerns about the unsettled security situation in Iraq where a tide of lawlessness and jockeying for power by ethnic and religious factions has eroded public patience with the US-led occupation.

Meanwhile, reconstruction efforts were given a considerable boost by a UN Security Council vote to lift the 13-year-old sanctions on Iraq.

Wolfowitz told the Senate panel that "passage of the resolution today is an important watershed in making it possible to get contributions on both military assistance for stability operations, and on the non-military side for reconstruction from many countries around the world."

The UN resolution received unanimous approval after former critics France, Germany and Russia -- who together led opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq -- were prevailed upon to ultimately support a revised text in support of lifting the sanctions.

The measure immediately lifts the economic sanctions and puts Iraq's oil revenues into a development fund for eventual reconstruction and humanitarian needs, at the direction of the United States and Britain.

Copyright 2003 AFP

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