Iraq liaison points to steady progress

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Army Maj. Russell J. Chun is a patient man who takes victories one at a time in Iraq, and often in small doses, but he would like the American public to know those small victories are occurring.

U.S. Army Maj. Russell Chun, center, is one of 1,700 U.S. civil affairs personnel helping with the rebuilding of Iraq. He's shown here with Col. Leonard Hawkins, left, and Polish Warrant Officer Rafael Geba. Chun family photo

Chun, who grew up in Kane'ohe and serves as a liaison officer for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, sought unemployment figures so progress in putting Iraqis back to work could be charted.

"Iraq had zero unemployment because in a perfect Islamic state, which this was, there are no unemployed," said Chun, a 1981 University of Hawai'i graduate. "It was illegal to keep unemployment statistics."

So the Army is using the names of former Iraqi soldiers, who get a stipend every month, to generate the country's first unemployment figures, Chun said. Seven thousand names a day are being recorded. Like everything else, it's a start.

Economic functions such as banking have to be re-created right down to a new currency without Saddam Hussein's picture.

Freedom of the press still is a foreign notion. A new Constitution has to be debated and written.

Chun is one of 1,700 U.S. civil affairs personnel — most of them Army reservists with expertise in areas such as finance, engineering, law and education — helping rebuild Iraq. And although daily headlines often announce the death of more American soldiers, Chun, who's been in Iraq since July 26, said progress is being made in ways big and small.

"How does one quantify progress?" Chun, 44, said recently by phone from Iraq. "I think they were using a measurement of pre-war and then 'now' that was a little bit unfair."

Pre-war, there were so many megawatts of power, and post-war, that same amount has just been reached.

"But then not taken into account was the fact that the infrastructure — no one invested in it," Chun said. "So when we started plugging in all the doohickeys that make it go, the wires couldn't handle it. We had to re-do all the wiring. We had to set up a capability that was never there before."

Chun, who works with civilian ministries in communicating their needs to the Army, said Civil Affairs hasn't done a good enough job of communicating its successes, but he also points to the preponderance of bad news reported by the media.

"I look at 25 ministries on a daily basis, and I can see 25 times 25 successes for each of the ministries ... and we're thrilled by that," Chun said. And yet, sometimes when I do take the time to look at a magazine, I really see death and destruction. And indeed there are security issues here, but someone mentioned to me, 'Hey, sir, when are they going to talk about our victories?' "

Six months after Saddam Hussein's government fell, U.S. officials are making a much more concerted effort to get the good word out.

Dan Senor, senior adviser to L. Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator for Iraq, said in a White House online exchange that 1,500 schools in Iraq have been rebuilt and are open.

"When we arrived in Iraq following the toppling of this regime, there was not a single Iraqi police officer on the streets, (and) today there are over 40,000," Senor said Thursday.

The first battalion of the new, U.S.-trained Iraqi Army has graduated, and all of Iraq's 240 hospitals and 90 percent of its health clinics are open, Senor said.

"The good news is that the overwhelming majority of Iraqi people have embraced the liberation and are grateful for all we are doing to reconstruct their country," Senor said.

But that progress comes at a price —Êand not only the billions of dollars being spent. At least 94 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile action since the end of major combat on May 1.

Chun, who is based with V Corps in Heidelberg, Germany, and has a wife and 2-year-old daughter, said much of his time in Iraq is spent at the "Four Headed" palace — so-called because of four busts of Saddam on the roof — where the CPA ministry team is located.

From Camp Victory near the international airport, it's about a 15-minute drive by Humvee to downtown Baghdad.

A minimum of two Humvees and at least four soldiers are required for travel.

"When I'm downtown, it's like any city with backed-up traffic, and they are selling things," Chun said. "That's one of the things I'm sort of impressed with — a rack of TVs rolling faster than my car."

Satellite TVs "are really big right now, and you can buy every CD known to man," Chun said.

Chun has worked with young Iraqi journalists who have signed up for the Iraqi Media Network, media run by the CPA. "I'm dealing with young people in the administration, and the media," he said.

Some Iraqi women Chun deals with in the ministry that were among the top 10 in their class said they would never have had the opportunity before the U.S. occupation.

"But now (they'll say), 'It's based on what I know, and what I can do' ... there's passion in their voices that now they have a shot at it."

On a recent day, he was working with the Iraqi Media Network on framing a Constitutional debate and how to develop confidence in the banking system.

"I'm just one of hundreds, thousands, of regular Joes out there who are doing something like this," Chun said. "We're not sort of sitting in a foxhole somewhere. We're taking some chances. We're rubbing shoulders with different people."

Recently, Chun was able to arrange a three-way aid organization meeting that resulted in the Danish Refugee Council getting 1,000 33-pound food boxes for distribution to needy Iraqi people.

"I pulled them over, they started talking, and now 20,000 internally displaced persons in Diyalah are going to have food," Chun said. "Now, how fun is that? There's an impact, and guys are doing that on a day-to-day basis. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Reach William Cole at 525-5459 or wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.