Thread: Iraqi/Dinar News before 3-12-2007 7:45PM CentralTimeZone

Chamber of Commerce - Karkh business owners working together in Baghdad
By Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
Mar 8, 2007 - 4:29:21 PM
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Maj. Chip Daniels, head of 2nd Brigade Combat Team's infrastructure coordination element of Palmyra, Pa., speaks to local business owners during a meeting in Baghdad's Karkh district March 3. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs)
Blackanthem Military News, BAGHDAD, Iraq - Throughout communities within the United States, business owners gather to form a tightly wound network to strengthen their local economy. For the past year or so, the Karkh business owners have tried to form their own network in hopes of achieving the same aims.

When Baghdad's Karkh district business owners met at the District Advisory Council Hall March 3 to elect their representatives, they decided they needed more time, to not only figure out who would best represent them, but also needed more time to hash out their newly-formed organization's bylaws.

Maj. James H. Adams, the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, executive officer, of Alexandria, La., said coalition forces, who serve as advisors, couldn't be prouder of the delay.

"This is governance in action," Adams said proudly. "This shows so much functionality. They made a decision and went with it. This showed courage and functionality to make a decision."

Capt. Jason Lewis, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team's Civil Affairs officer, who calls Portland, Ore., home, agreed that the elections should take more time. He said the officers should be those business owners who have done well despite the war.

"They are natural leaders," said Lewis. "They have the power or ‘wasta,' a local term used for people with pull. They can survive the war and drive around in a Mercedes. They are the people you want running Baghdad."

According to Adams, the DAC, which provides legitimacy to the, would-be chamber of commerce, would work together with the organization to enforce standards on other business leaders.

The thought is that the business owners would, according to the bylaws, agree to hire contractors from within their own community who could do the work, do it right, and in a timely manner, thereby promoting a stronger economy for Karkh district of the Iraqi capital.

"We want to put your family, your neighbors, your friends to work ... the DAC has recognized that, and we know that's the way to proceed," said Maj. Chip Daniels, the infrastructure coordination element chief from Palmyra, Pa., to the DAC members and business owners.

In other districts of Baghdad, such as Al Doura, the chamber of commerce has flourished. It's opened more than 170 different shops and numerous markets by using the same principles, according to Lewis.

"We want [Karkh] to learn from the lessons in Doura because it's been successful there," he said. "Businessmen will listen to other businessmen."

For coalition forces, who usually take a back seat to the big decisions made by the DAC, they know that the future of Baghdad, both it economic and security stability, largely depends on the "yea's" and "nea's" in forums like the chamber of commerce.

"The bottom line is the jobs," said Lewis. "I think the insurgency is caused by people not having jobs."

He added that it's not about hiring people to do senseless work, or the "band-aid" method, but rather jobs with viable skills and trades that would ultimately help increase the local market.

"Karkh is right on the cusps of economic surge," said Adams. "This district is going to be a shining star for the rest of Baghdad; it'll be the model for the rest of Baghdad."

The question of how long it would take for Karkh to have a fully-functional chamber of commerce may be answered by U.S. history. Adams draws back to the length of time it took the founding fathers to agree on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"I think it's more conditions-based than time-based," he said. "You have to first build a functional council before you move on. You can work a timeline, but you have to be willing to deviate from the timeline due to members leaving and other events."

How this works out is something most of the DAC and Karkh residents are interested in seeing. Many of them, according to Adams, eagerly await the decisions so they can just live in peace and have a nice place to raise their children.

"I see this as so monumental," he said. "One-hundred years from now, they can look back - yeah, there were some growing pains, but it was something that worked."

US to send extra men to Iraq
Agencies


Washington: The US is to send an extra 2,200 men to Iraq as part of the drive to increase security in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The military police soldiers will be sent to support the security drive in Baghdad after being approved by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The extra forces are in addition to the 24,000 troops already announced by US President George Bush, and will be there to deal with an expected increase in detainees.

The request for more policemen was made by the US military chief in Iraq, Lt Gen David Petraeus.

Announcing the move, the defence secretary said there were "very preliminary positive signs" that the controversial security plan was actually having an effect.

The plan will see thousands of US and Iraqi troops combing Baghdad in a crackdown on suspected militants and illegal weapons.

Regional issues 'need realistic solutions'
By Samir Salama, Bureau Chief



Abu Dhabi: A Gulf security conference ended here on Wednesday with a call for Gulf-Iranian cooperation in finding a solution to the Iraqi crisis.

Prince Turki Al Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Chairman of King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, said doctrinal differences should not lead to disputes or conflicts.

"These differences are historical, so sectarian disputes should not heighten tension at a time when the regional states need rapprochement and cooperation in order to establish a respectable standard of living for their people."

While slamming as ignorant analysts who portrayed Iran as a hegemonic state that is trying to spread Shiite influence in Sunni societies, Prince Turki said in his keynote speech at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research Centre's 12th annual conference on Arabian Gulf Security that King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasised the necessity of defusing the sectarian conflict and looking at Iran as a neighbour with economic and social ties with the Gulf.

Regional problems and crises, he said, require realistic solutions rather than debate over Sunni and Shiite disputes and fuelling of sectarian conflicts.

However, he said he believed relations between the two sides of the Gulf cannot be expected to advance as long as Iran's occupation of UAE's islands continues.

On the Middle East issue, Prince Turki said the GCC countries have emphasised the necessity of a just solution for the Palestinian issue, making the region a WMD-free area, and the right of every country to generate their own nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

The world community has no right to apply double standards and deprive either the GCC or Iran of peaceful nuclear energy.

Strategists attending the conference called for setting up a unified security system and a contingency plan for the GCC countries to cope with any war in future.

Dr Abdullah Al Shayji, professor of political science at Kuwait University, said: "We are outsourcing everything, even our security, hard and soft. And we lack a unified vision of the Gulf security. We speak of six armies in six countries with armament but without joint capabilities."

Dr Fatima Al Sayegh, professor of history at the UAE University, said that the Gulf security should not be looked at as just military or nuclear.

"There is economic security, cultural security and social security. Internal challenges are much bigger than external ones."

Experts attending a security conference shared the view that the absence of democracy is an important factor causing the spread of terrorism.

"There must be an expansion of democratic and liberal processes and principles and the elimination of dictatorships in line with the particular situation prevailing in each state," said Fouad Allam, an expert in terrorism affairs, in Egypt.

Another important motive behind terrorism, Allam said, is that some states and organisations resort to terrorism in order to achieve justice and obtain some specific rights, after failing to achieve them peacefully in an unjust international order.

Allam said the spread of the culture of terrorism, especially the rejection of "the other" and the renunciation of the culture of dialogue had led some groups to disseminate their views by violent means.

The growing number of foreign workers particularly in the UAE and Qatar and unemployment were among the concerns raised at the conference.

Dr Shafiq Al Gabra, head of Jusoor Arabiya Centre in Kuwait, said the Gulf countries create 50,000 jobs annually. "But in order for them to eradicate unemployment, they need to create 300,000 jobs per annum."

The Kurdistan Region: Proof that US hasn’t failed in Iraq


Friday, March 09, 2007

KurdishMedia.com - By Khasro Pirbal

Ongoing discussion, both in America and globally, would have us all believe that the U.S. has failed in Iraq. Domestic America, policy study institutions, foreign policy experts, and strategic advisors all refer to the failure of America's policies in their war on terror, specifically their launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom and its execution.

Both U.S. Democrats and Republicans debate the failure of the Bush administration's execution of the war, and offer new platforms and alternative projects, mostly according to their party affiliation.
Mostly, they just want to accuse Bush's administration of having exercised wrong policies in Iraq. Through their strong media, Bush's opponents have only highlighted the bad news, including the beheadings and bombings by groups that to this very day are receiving weapons from Iran and Syria.

On the regional level, unfortunately, all of the countries were against American intervention and opposed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.
All of these countries have dictatorial systems of rule and do not respect the rights of their own people and, similarly, have no respect for the legitimate demands of Kurds. They have all been working against freedom and peace, and that's why they cannot adjust to the democratic process in Iraq.
Therefore, they are trying hard through their own media channels to bring terrorism and murder into the spotlight, and consider the acts as nothing more than resistance.

In the media, unfortunately, America's failure in Iraq was predicted.
However, one thing we know for sure is that the politics and participation of the U.S. in Iraq have not completely failed. A perfect example of the positives that America has accomplished is evident right here in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. With the help of the U.S., its allied forces, and other peaceful and democratic countries in the world, all of the mechanisms necessary to establish and sustain an administration and an economic infrastructure were put into place, resulting in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

America must continue to support the Kurdistan Region experiment, and show the entire world that they have not completely failed in Iraq. I think, as most Kurds do, that from now on America should move past speaking about freedom and democracy, and concentrate on working for the development and revival of the country's economic infrastructure. They must stress and tie in the economic values of political success, and take all the steps necessary to work for the reconstruction of the Kurdistan economy and the Iraq economy in general. They can help the KRG by developing the ever-important production sector. Kurdistan is a calm window of opportunity and a suitable choice for Iraq's economic development and revival process.

We have all entered a new stage, both Kurds and Americans. At this juncture, America must know that Kurds are the better and more loyal friends to have.

Because of that, we must work together to develop Kurdistan more actively by getting technology, capital, and American companies to participate in the region's growth. More important than all of this, perhaps, is that there must be a red line drawn to keep Iraqi Kurdistan Region from the dangerous areas in Iraq.

America's efforts in Iraq have not been a complete failure, as we see in Kurdistan Region. America must continue to work with us to succeed, but they must now move away from talk about freedom to effectively participating in the process of making a stronger economic infrastructure in the region

I am missing that thanks button.

Allawi leads drive to replace current Iraq administration


Friday, March 09, 2007

Chicago Tribune - By Liz Sly


Ayad Allawi
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The secular former prime minister and U.S. favorite Ayad Allawi is leading a new push to replace the Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a broad-based government that would focus on restoring order. Amid deepening concerns among Sunnis and secularists about al-Maliki's performance, Allawi has emerged at the center of an initiative to create a "national salvation front," which his supporters say would be able to secure the backing of Iraqi insurgents, reunite the country and end the sectarian conflict that has prevailed for more than a year.

Though Allawi's aides deny that he wants to replace al-Maliki as prime minister, Allawi is preparing to embark on a tour of the region to win the support of Arab governments for his proposals, just as representatives of Iraq's neighbors are gathering with the U.S. in Baghdad for a regional conference intended to shore up support for the al-Maliki government.

The idea of a new coalition to overturn the current political process is not new, and the front has yet to be fully formed.

But the effort has been given new momentum by the reappearance on the Iraqi political scene of Allawi, a high-profile U.S. ally who is both a Shiite and a centrist; the defection this week of the Fadhila Party, a small faction from al-Maliki's ruling Shiite coalition, and a trip made by Allawi in the company of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to visit the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani last weekend.

U.S. Embassy officials refused to say why Khalilzad accompanied Allawi on the trip to Kurdistan or what was discussed during the talks.

But the Kurdistan visit was interpreted by many in Baghdad as a public display of support for Allawi by the U.S. It was also seen as a warning to al-Maliki that he cannot count on continued U.S. support if his Shiite-led government does not deliver on a range of promises intended to end the simmering sectarian conflict and bring about real reconciliation with Sunnis.

"You see Allawi meeting with Barzani and the U.S. ambassador is with Allawi, so people analyze this as meaning that the U.S. supports Allawi," said Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman, who discussed the meeting with Barzani and does not believe the U.S. has made a decision to support the new front.

"Maybe the U.S. is using this to put pressure on Maliki to deliver more, to remind him that there are alternatives," Othman said.

Sunnis and secularists staunchly opposed to the Islamist Shiite parties now running the government have unsuccessfully tried to find ways to block Shiite rule since the December 2005 election, which gave Shiites a plurality, though not an outright majority, in the Iraqi parliament.

For any new coalition to have a chance of outvoting the al-Maliki government in parliament, it would have to secure the backing of the Kurds, the second largest parliamentary bloc. The Kurds teamed up with the Shiite coalition to form a majority in the current government.

The Kurds are not prepared to abandon their Shiite partners for now, said Othman, which makes it difficult to see how Allawi can succeed in his efforts.

The U.S. has also given no indication that it is considering abandoning al-Maliki. Addressing reporters at his first press conference on Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, expressed full confidence in al-Maliki, saying that he and his team are "striving to be leaders for all Iraqis and responsive to the desires of all Iraqis."

The political maneuvering has nonetheless triggered rumors across Baghdad that a coup plot is being hatched, stirring fury among al-Maliki's supporters.

"If there is any conspiracy or plot against Maliki's government, millions of people will take to the streets," Shiite legislator Hassan Snaid, one of al-Maliki's closest advisors, told Al-Hurra TV, in a reminder that the Shiite government enjoys the support of the vast majority of ordinary Shiites.

Supporters of the new front deny that they are conspiring to remove al-Maliki. They say they will only seek to replace him if he fails to fulfill a set of demands that includes the formation of a new government, an overhaul of the De-Baathification law, which prevents many former Baathists from returning to public life, and a review of the constitution.

These are longstanding Sunni demands, backed by the U.S., that al-Maliki has repeatedly said he will address. They also include a revamp of his cabinet, which he has promised in the coming week.

"Our problem is not with Mr. Maliki as a person. Our problem is with the system, which must be modified," said Izzat Shahbandar, a parliamentarian from Allawi's bloc who is closely involved in the new effort.

"The first step is for Mr. Maliki to make changes and if he doesn't respond we are ready to form a parliamentary bloc that is big enough to remove the prime minister."

As the U.S. dispatches extra troops to the streets of Baghdad to shore up al-Maliki's government, the U.S. has also been quietly pressuring him to do more to reach out to Sunnis.

Petraeus reiterated the view expressed by military commanders in the past that, ultimately, a resolution of the conflict in Iraq will require political reconciliation between the factions.

"That is what will determine in the long run the success of this effort. And again, that clearly has to include talking with and eventually reconciling differences with some of those who have felt that the new Iraq did not have a place for them," he said.

"Prime Minister Maliki clearly believes that it does, and I think that his actions will demonstrate that," Petraeus added.

The latest challenge to al-Maliki has the support of most members of the main parliamentary Sunni and secular blocs, and efforts are also underway to lure support away from the Shiite coalition, which controls 128 seats. Past efforts to split the United Iraqi Alliance have failed, though the small Fadhila Party, with 15 seats, announced it was leaving the coalition earlier this week.

But with the Kurds in control of 53 seats, that still leaves the Allawi initiative far short of the 138 seats needed to bring about a parliamentary coup, however.

"I'm not optimistic that it will succeed," said Othman, the Kurdish legislator. "I'd prefer a secular government, but the Shiites are sticking together and they're a strong coalition."

Will a woman rule Kurdistan one day?


Friday, March 09, 2007

KurdishMedia.com - By Mufid Abdulla

Thoughts of equality in the women’s month of March

8th March 2007 - International Women’s Day
18th March - Mothering day

There is not a single nation which has sacrificed their women like the Kurdish nation. This is a true struggle, and many sacrifices have to be made if you raise your sons and daughters to defend your country, and ultimately die for it.

It was women who fought against the old rule of Saddam’s barbaric regime as they stood shoulder to shoulder with their men folk. Women have been prosecuted under Saddam’s laws, thrown in Saddam’s jail for defending their land and their country and subsequently faced sentences of torture and death, as they too were victims of a complex system of oppression. What has happened to Kurdish women is unprecedented in the history of man (or woman) kind.

I vividly remember my mum doing the washing, ironing and raising children whilst at the same time having a lot of input in my father’s life. Within these seemingly everyday tasks she had to use the skills of accounting to budget for food, the skill of gardening to grow food to supplement the family table, the skills of medicine as she tended her family when ill, management of the family timetable and other numerous skills that are normally reserved for perhaps one recognised profession. Most of the time it was she, my mother, who advised all the way through school, university, as well as both inside and outside the house. It was very obvious to me that, if she had been given even the slightest opportunity and been able to study management, maybe at university, she could have taken over half of my father job outside the house. The most successful women in our Kurdish society are those women who are in the centre of work and make a silent, but so important, contribution to society. Incidentally, but oh so illustrative of my point, my mother also served a prison sentence in place of my father who could not be found at the time. Is that equality? It would appear that in some ways it is but it is a reversed of reasoning!

Germany is already governed by woman. In America and France woman are fighting on equal terms to take the office of president into new female realms. In other examples, women have achieved pivotal roles: Margaret Thatcher in the UK; Golda Meir in Israel who became Prime Minister at the age of 70 and who went on to lead Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Gandhi was Prime Minister of India twice and fought Pakistan and ultimately ruled by decree under the state of emergency; Jenny Shipley of the Conservative party, who became New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister in 1997; following the death of her husband in 1974, Eva Perón became the world’s first female President in Argentina; Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka was the first female Prime Minister in history. This is but a précised list of women who have shone in their belief and determination, and with their love for their countries and belief in their fellow people.

In the UK, girls are now being seen to overtake boys in school and now women make up 57% of university entrants: outnumbering men in every subject including maths and engineering, areas which have always traditionally been male dominated. Surely enough women have gone through the pipeline of public scrutiny now and actively proved that they are ready to take on these roles of leadership? As Kurds, are we not ready for a triumvirate of ‘Iron Ladies’?

Kurdish woman do not get any chances in politics. Do our politicians really care about woman’s rights? Care about the way that Kurdish women raise their children to such a high standard? Surely there are undeniable advantages for women being in power?
Throughout Kurdish history and the struggles we have had, we have had the opportunity to employ some very strong and wise women but we did not do so, much to our detriment. Now, the leadership should compromise and allow their participation thus demonstrating the modern and tolerant attitude towards women that they pay lip service to.

The woman’s situation has changed enormously in respect of family and society yet still, on a daily basis, we read in newspapers and hear on other forms of media about continual discrimination and violence against women.

Because women are skilled in the art of multitasking, they have to negotiate constantly between their husbands and children and extended family with last regard coming for their self. In the most developed countries in the western world: for example, the United Kingdom and United States of America, women are a recognised necessity in and have almost equal rights and shares in the workforce, though even in those places there is a way to go before total equality is reached.

In Kurdistan on Woman’s day it was clear that:

1. the term ‘emancipation of women’ still only has little meaning or understanding for the majority of people. Emancipation of woman should be actual substance not just a stylistic idea. The emancipation of woman must have some meaning of cessation of inequality between men and women.

2. the participation of women is paramount to help combat the state of poverty and backwardness. Women should be at the centre of decision making and should be entitled to make equal and positive decisions that influence society – not only their immediate family. Surely it should be clear that in isolating women from such decisions does not help their families? They are only subject to a frustration due to their intelligence and ability to see clearly where things need adjustment.

3. with the emergence of Kurdistan from the direct rule of Saddam to a modern form of political, economic and social organisation, woman must be given pivotal roles within the circle of work and politics.

4. the political groups and social organisations, in fact Kurdish society in general, must change their traditional attitude towards woman completely but, and this is an important point, such change must be not restricted to the upper and middle classes. .The main programme should be modernisation and acknowledgement of women’s issue as a whole.

5. in identifying the rights and roles of woman we would be laying the foundation stone for the future progress of woman in and for Kurdistan.

6. a move towards a much fairer and better salaried employment of women in Kurdistan would contribute to the prevalence of traditional social prejudice regarding the female sex and the limited number of educated woman.

Finally, I would like to ask if there is a possibility that, one day, a woman will rule Kurdistan as in other countries in the world. This, and the inclusion of women in all aspects of life, would help to create a more balanced situation and present a face of modernity to the rest of the world.

I would suggest that effective programmes to achieve these objectives should be:

• the elimination of differences between various sections of women and
• enhancement of the process of women’s emancipation.

In undertaking the responsibility for reconstruction of Kurdish society, that society should not underestimate the negative effects which the subordination of women exerts, and has exerted, upon society.

Originally Posted by Adster

Can't believe noone has commented on this! It's huge! We knew it was this month but not when. Excellent news.

I like this line in bold below.....part of being self sufficient would mean more imports at a better price, international dealings on a huge basis and an exchange rate worthy of a country that potentially will be in the top 3 richest countries within 3 years. Do I hear a cha ching????


Iraq does need to become economically self-sufficient.

Yes that is def. great news and thanks for posting. it is getting very close and soon we will all be in a better place.

Heading home to uncertainty


Thursday, March 08, 2007

IWPR

Iraqi returnees find it difficult to resume their old lives.

By Hussein al-Yassiri in Baghdad (ICR No. 214, 7-Mar-07)

Ali Tofiq, 29, didn’t want to leave Iraq for Syria, but he felt he had no other option. He hoped to start a new life with his family – but things did not go according to plan.

A former army officer, Tofiq lost his job when the army was dissolved in 2003 and became a taxi driver. In March last year, he sold his car and all his family furniture to scrape together the money to take his wife and four children to Syria.

However, nine months after emigrating, he was still without a job. He had run out of money and felt he had no choice but to return home to Iraq.

Since he cannot afford to rent a house of his own, Tofiq and his family live with his parents in al-Ilam in eastern Baghdad. Their only source of income is Tofiq’s meagre pension of 55 US dollars a month.

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families have fled to escape the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country. According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, around 1.8 million Iraqis have left the country since 2003 and around 1.6 million have been internally displaced. The majority have settled in Syria and Jordan.

For many who fled abroad, the relief of escaping civil war did not last. Soon the frustration of not being able to make a living set in. Job opportunities for refugees are limited in Syria and Jordan, where a special work permit is required. These countries also frequently change visa and passport regulations with the aim of reducing the influx of refugees.

Last month, hundreds of Iraqis gathered in front of UNHCR's Damascus office to register with the refugee agency, because their visas had expired and they were afraid of being deported by the Syrian authorities.

But there are a significant number of people who, after many months of struggling to make ends meet, have given up and decided to go back to Iraq. They decided they would rather live with the threat of violence than without money far from home.

It is rare that returnees can simply pick up their old lives. Many sold their homes before leaving Iraq, and others have found their properties have been seized by militia members or insurgents while they were gone.

Dureid Hasanen, 40, spent six months looking for a job in Syria but came to grief because he lacked proper documentation. "Some of the jobs required special papers to accredit my Iraqi study certificate, and that is a complex and long process in Syria,” he said.

When he ran out of money and could not cover his living costs any longer, he had no choice but to return to Iraq.

"Most of the Iraqis I know could not find jobs in Syria," he said.

And the government at home has little or nothing to offer to those coming back. Hamdia Najaf, acting minister for immigration and displaced people in Iraq, said returnees are not the ministry's priority at the moment.

"The ministry is new and we have insufficient manpower," she said, adding that they also lack the funds to deal with the increasing number of displaced people. "We have to direct our attention, help and services to those who are internally displaced.”

However, she promised that the ministry would open offices in neighbouring countries to help Iraqi refugees.

At least for the children of the returnees there are open doors, and they are welcomed back in their schools.

"Every student has the right to study in our school,” said Hana Jawad, headmaster of al-Basra preparatory school in Baghdad. “They only need to bring documents from the school they were attending before.”

Few things have remained the same for the children of Saifadeen Mahmood from Mansoor, who returned to Iraq with his family after several months in Jordan. But at least they are back in their old school – a hint of daily routine in their otherwise uprooted lives.

Hussein al-Yassiri is an IWPR contributor in Baghdad.

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: March 9, 2007
BAGHDAD, March 8 — When Rahim al-Daraji looks at the dusty lots just east of Sadr City where scores of bodies have been dumped in the past year, he sees a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, coffee shops and restaurants.

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The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage » “We should have an amusement park,” said Mr. Daraji, one of two elected mayors in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad where American and Iraqi troops have been peacefully clearing homes since Sunday. “We want to rehabilitate the area so that families can have fun.”

In an interview at his office, Mr. Daraji said the amusement park was one of several projects that community leaders were pushing American officials to finance in negotiations about how to handle the Shiite Mahdi Army, a militia that has controlled the neighborhood for years.

A concentrated makeover of Sadr City, he said, would support the plan’s goals in two important ways: by giving young Mahdi militants jobs as an alternative to lives of violence and by providing residents with proof of the government’s ability to improve their daily lives.

Mr. Daraji’s requests, however, also reflect a broader effort by Iraqi leaders to dart past “clear and hold” to the more lucrative phase of the new security plan known as “build.”

Even as bombings and killings here continue, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has labeled the plan a success. His Shiite-led government has allotted $10 billion this year for reconstruction throughout the country, and, with billions more expected from the United States, Iraqi leaders at all levels are scrambling for a say in how the windfall might be spent.

They are also pressing for veto power over contracts, blaming an unwieldy American system of subcontracting that was impossible to police for the loss or theft of billions in reconstruction dollars since the war began.

Iraqi figures, political veterans and up and comers are seeking an advisory role.

Ahmad Chalabi, for example, the political chameleon and advocate for the war, has re-emerged as an intermediary between Baghdad residents and the Iraqi and American security forces.

At a freshly renovated compound in the Green Zone, Mr. Chalabi now regularly meets with leaders from all over Baghdad as they compete for roles in managing the expected infusion of projects and jobs. At a recent gathering, representatives from 15 neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad stood one after another to explain why they should be chosen to lead.

For American officials, Sadr City’s calls for an amusement park, job training programs and other projects raise a particularly thorny question of trust. In 2004, American troops battled Mahdi militants here for days. More recently, United States military officials have accused the militia of using roadside bombs, possibly linked to Iran, that have killed at least 170 American service members.

At the same time, the negotiations over the Mahdi militia, along with the arrest or flight of several commanders, appear to have led to a temporary truce. American soldiers were welcomed into people’s homes this week on streets where they once came under fire.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, at his first news conference as the top commander in Iraq, acknowledged Thursday that the Mahdi militia included a mix of violent extremists and people with more benign motivations.

“The challenge,” he said, “has been to determine, how do you incorporate those who want to serve in a positive way — as neighborhood watches, let’s say, but unarmed — in our own communities, but without turning into something much more than that?”

Mr. Daraji emphasized that Sadr City as a whole “wants to open a new page in its story.” He said that Mahdi fighters had laid down their weapons to give the government a chance, and that the opportunity should not be missed.

He said the prime minister’s office was already seizing the moment with an expanded job recruitment drive for neighborhood residents. As proof, Mr. Daraji — a chain-smoking tribal sheik partial to tailored suits — opened a door near his office and pointed to a pile of red, green and yellow folders that he said were job applications for every part of the government, from the Oil Ministry to the police.

“We’ve collected more than 2,000 applications,” he said. “We’re classifying them according to whether people have college degrees, whether they are men or women.”

He and other Baghdad government leaders said that the United States military would be smart to add hundreds of additional jobs in the neighborhood because it contained at least 1.5 million people, or about a third of the city, and had just begun to revive after decades of neglect. They said the neighborhood deserved to become a model of government effectiveness.

“The plan is not only about security,” said Naeem al-Kabbi, Baghdad’s deputy mayor in charge of municipal services. “It’s about security, services and reconstruction.”

Mr. Daraji said he had asked American officials for money to build small playgrounds, with tennis and volleyball courts, every few blocks — not unlike what can be found in planned communities like Levittown.

He said he had pressed the Americans for money to rehabilitate a handful of lakes on the western edge of the neighborhood and for more control over the contracts so they could be assigned faster with less waste.

“We need to engage people as soon as possible, get them working, make them busy,” he said. “These are quick projects. After these we will move on to medium and larger plans.”

“The security process,” he added, “accelerates the economic possibilities.”


Khalid al-Ansary and Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi contributed reporting.