WASHINGTON – The end of military operations in Iraq will bring a turnover of U.S. efforts to civilians, but the U.S. will not leave those workers undefended in remote provinces, Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq until last week, said Wednesday.
“Whatever finally emerges … we will have a footprint where we have the right people in the right place,” Hill said during a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “They will be protected. We’re not going to put people at undue risk.”
The bulk of U.S. activities in Iraq will be carried out by State Department workers, many stationed around the country in Provincial Reconstruction Teams. The number of those outposts is planned to decline, but how many and where they will be has yet to be decided.
“For at least the last year there is a plan to decrease the number of PRTs,” said State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson.
“It’s one thing to put people in harm’s way,” Hill said. “It’s another thing to put people in places where you don’t have the means to defend them.”
The U.S. wants a presence in key cities in a variety of regions — Anbar, Najaf, Diyala, Kirkuk and Basra, Hill said. But the cost of defending those civilian workers once U.S. military forces leave may be difficult to balance with the State Department’s other missions, he said.
“To take a Provincial Reconstruction Team and take it out of the sort of military cocoon that it’s in and try to have the State Department try to do some of the sustainment, you start to run into some heavy costs,” Hill said.
Hill served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from April 2009 until Thursday, delaying his retirement to stay in Iraq, hoping to usher in a new government after months of stalemate. His successor, James Jeffrey, presented his diplomatic credentials to Iraq’s president on Wednesday.
“At some point, like every country, Iraq will have a government,” Hill said. “The question will be: How will the U.S. interact with such a government?”