Utah native Korologos says U.S. must stay in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Native Utahn Tom Korologos, one of the top overseers of Iraqi reconstruction, says one sure way exists for America to lose everything there: leave.

"Staying there does not assume success. Leaving early guarantees failure," he testified Wednesday to the House Government Reform Committee.

Korologos is one of three senior counselors to ambassador L. Paul Bremer, head of Iraqi reconstruction efforts. He urged the committee to stand behind reconstruction and said more progress is being made than is reported in the U.S. press.

"Our lament comes from the fact that there are good things happening and very few Americans know anything about them. The reporting of these accomplishments, unfortunately, takes a back seat to the police-blotter type of journalism which fills the front pages," listing ongoing U.S. casualties, he said.

So Korologos — a former Salt Lake newspaperman and a longtime Washington lobbyist — provided a long list of U.S. accomplishments there and said continuing them is vital to ensure overall success of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

"Baghdad is not a war-ravaged city. Baghdad is a hustling and bustling city where you can buy everything on the streets from air conditioners to refrigerators to satellite dishes to shoes," he said.

"When I first arrived there, we had 9-mile-long gasoline lines. Today, we have traffic jams. We love traffic jams because they mean the gasoline is flowing and people are moving about," Korologos said.

"Schools reopened in Iraq last week. We refurbished 1,000 schools," he said. "We have prepared and are distributing 5 million new math and science textbooks minus Saddam's ideology."

He added, "Saddam budgeted $13 million for health care in 2002. It came to about 50 cents per person. We have allocated $210 million, a 3,200 percent increase. On April 9, there were only 30 percent of the hospitals running. Today, all 240 around the country are open."

Korologos added that "independent voices are being heard for the first time in 40 years," with 200 newspapers now operating plus 27 TV stations and 26 radio stations.

"The Central Bank is now open, providing loans and conducting commerce. Plus we are distributing a new currency to the Iraqis within the next two weeks," he said.

"Oil is pumping. We are at about 1.7 million barrels a day and we hope to get back to prewar levels around 3 million. We plan to generate $2.5 billion in revenue by the end of the year, and we are shooting for $12.5 billion by the end of next year," he said.