With Reconstruction Plan Under Criticism, Changes Are Made at the Top
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Peter Slevin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page A01
BAGHDAD, May 10 -- The American diplomat serving as chief administrator of Baghdad has been reassigned by the Bush administration after less than three weeks in Iraq in what U.S. officials here said was part of a broader shake-up of the troubled Pentagon operation to rebuild the country.
Barbara K. Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen and the highest-ranking woman in the U.S.-led interim administration in Iraq, said she intended to leave for Washington on Sunday to fill a senior post at the State Department. As Baghdad's effective postwar mayor, she had been in charge of restoring vital public services and forming a democratic local government for the capital's 5 million residents -- a job that is incomplete.
When asked why officials in Iraq were fired after failing to restore the local economy after a few weeks, whereas the President has failed to restore the U.S. economy after two years in office, officials replied "Time zones. See, it's seven hours ahead in Baghdad, so those people have actually been around longer than we have." When a reporter pointed out that that was just wrong, the official replied "OK, it's like dog years… no, wait. See, it's a translation thing.. the Arabic for 'three weeks' is … no, that's not it." The officials then left the room. A written statement later explained that "The President cares more about Baghdad than Washington, DC." A subsequent statement clarified that the original statement had been issued by "Saddam sympathizers in the Press Office."