Study faults US Iraq, Afghan reconstruction teams

Study faults US Iraq, Afghan reconstruction teams
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyeAoGpTkZOs0aLjL4xKQpXfGgBQ
  4/18/08

WASHINGTON (AFP) =97 A new report warns says US provincial
reconstruction teams (PRT), a much publicized program for rebuilding
Iraq and Afghanistan, operate as ad hoc "pickup games" with no clear
direction.

The study released Thursday by the US House of Representatives' Armed
Services Committee found that the teams are often unevenly staffed and
led, and lack strategic guidance or oversight.

"While capabilities have developed over time, PRT planning and
operations started in an ad hoc manner and they remain decentralized,"
the report said.

"The relevant departments have not articulated clear objectives for
what they want PRTs to do, and they cannot effectively evaluate their
performance," it said.

It said the US Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, has not taken an active role in providing guidance.

The teams were first established in Afghanistan in 2002 as a means of
winning hearts and minds through political and economic work.

They got off to a slow start, however, in part because the State
Department and other government agencies failed to provide sufficient
personnel to staff the PRTs, which work alongside or are embedded with
US military units.

The United States currently operates 12 military-led provincial
reconstruction teams in Afghanistan, each consisting of 50 to 100
people, the report said.

In Iraq, there are now 24 teams, 13 of them embedded in military
units, it said.

But the report said neither the Defense Department nor the State
Department has established a strategy for using the PRTs, nor have
they adopted a system for measuring their effectiveness.

"Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of State can
provide basic information about what each provincial reconstruction
team is attempting to do or what progress PRTs are making individually
or collectively," it said.
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