Progress in Iraq pointed out

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Saturday that the effort to secure and rebuild the country was "way ahead of schedule" just over 100 days after U.S.-led forces captured Baghdad.

"It is truly amazing and heartwarming how far we've come," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters. "I spent a year in Kosovo in the aftermath of a war. We were nowhere near the level of progress that has been made in this entire country in 100 days."

Despite an extremely dangerous security situation -- a U.S. soldier was killed Saturday while guarding a bank in Baghdad, the 36th to die in combat in Iraq since May 1 -- Sanchez said coalition forces have made major strides to restore infrastructure and institutions badly neglected during former president Saddam Hussein's nearly 35-year reign.

"We cannot make up decades of neglect in 100 days," Sanchez said. "If you look across those issues that are important to the Iraqi people . . . I guarantee you we have made tremendous progress."

While many Iraqis support the U.S. presence, some interviewed said the U.S.-led occupation has not yet brought significant improvements in water and electrical service, employment, food and, especially, law and order. Standing near a soda stand on a busy street corner in downtown Baghdad, Naser Hardan, 48, an electrician, said he thinks the security situation is improving each day under the Americans. "We can see a little bit of security these days," he said.

But his friend, Rafid Fasool, 36, who is unemployed, disagreed. He pointed to two wide gashes on his nose, recently inflicted by robbers. "I think the situation is getting worse and worse; nothing has changed yet," he said. "Wait two hours here and you will face the robbers and gunmen. What things are getting better?"

Sanchez said improvements have been made in many areas, from political institutions to the justice and prison systems and schools. He said 750 new border guards have been hired and trained, a new police force is being prepared and a major cement plant in the city of Kirkuk has been reopened and is employing many Iraqis.

He said that even the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, which have been hotbeds of anti-American violence and where a U.S. soldier was killed Friday by a bomb detonated remotely, have been "fairly quiet" lately.

"Even if we had no electricity, even if our schools weren't running and all we had was just the basics for living," Sanchez said, "who could argue that this country has not made tremendous progress just by the fact that you've eliminated a dictatorial, cruel regime? So I am very optimistic about the future of Iraq."

Early today, unknown attackers killed a U.S. soldier guarding a bank in Baghdad. U.S. soldiers have been killed nearly every other day since May 1, when President Bush declared major combat in Iraq had ended.

"We still have a lot of work to do, and we all know we are still fighting a war," Sanchez said. "The war that we're fighting is against the former regime leadership, it's against terrorists and criminals. We are winning this war."

Sanchez also touted the opening Saturday of three recruitment centers for the new Iraqi army in Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul and the southern city of Basra. The Iraqi army could have its first 775-member battalion in training by the beginning of August and on duty two months later.

"This army will be a representative national army, led and manned by Iraqis of all ethnic, regional and religious backgrounds," said British Brig. Gen. Jonathon Riley, announcing the recruitment centers. Riley said another center would open soon in the northern city of Irbil.

Riley said long lines formed at the three centers today, and he anticipated having enough qualified applicants for the first battalion in the next few days. He said all Iraqi men between 18 and 40 were eligible, except former Iraqi security or intelligence agents, top officials of Hussein's Baath Party, soldiers from the Republican Guard and former regular army officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel.

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