STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's focus on just one problem inside Iraq. A shortage of electricity continues to plague the country, in part because of sabotage. But that leads to a question, how hard can it be to replace a downed transmission tower? General David Petraeus repeatedly asked that question of his staff after Tower Number 57, south of Baghdad, was blown up by Sunni insurgents last summer.
As NPR's Anne Garrels reports, the answer is very hard.
ANNE GARRELS: It's taken more than a year to get Tower 57 back up. Though Captain Rob Rossfeld(ph), reached by phone, explains the actual work only took four and a half days.
Captain ROB ROSSFELD (U.S. Army): Once we cracked the code on the security equation, you know, they were up and running.
GARRELS: But it was a long run. First, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped in. It hired an Iraqi company to fix the tower.
General Ed Cardon, also reached on a scratchy Iraqi cell phone, says that effort went nowhere.
General ED CARDON (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; 3rd Infantry Division Assistant Division Commander): That contract was threatened so, you know, it came up with a million excuses on why they couldn't do it, rode out the end of the contract.
GARRELS: By this summer, the importance of the tower reached the highest levels of the U.S. military. U.S. officers decided it was finally time for the Iraqi government to take charge. This kicked off Iraqi bureaucratic wrangling over who should do it and who should protect the workers.
Gen. CARDON: I spoke with some of the senior leadership and said, you know, we have to help them, but we can't help them so much we're doing it ourselves.
GARRELS: The tower, which transmits hundreds of megawatts to southern Baghdad, is in a remote rural area. Whoever brought it down chose a tower that would be particularly difficult to repair. There are lots of dirt roads around it, ripe for bombings and snipers.
The Iraqi army, working with American trainers, came up with a security plan. They decided a platoon of 30 Iraqi soldiers would be enough. Engineers from the Ministry of Electricity went out to the site. There was some shooting. No one was injured, but they got spooked and fled. This happened three times.
Cardon says these failed efforts simply raised the profile of the project and made it more dangerous.
Gen. CARDON: How many times are we going to go down here and do nothing? Because every time you go down there, it's almost like you put more importance on, more importance on, more importance on.
GARRELS: Frustrated American officials dubbed the project: field of dreams.
Gen. CARDON: We kept reminding the Iraqi government that if you want more power in Baghdad, you need to fix this.
GARRELS: Captain Rob Rossfeld, working with the Iraqi troops in the area, said the Ministry of Electricity kept upping its demands, asking for the impossible.
Gen. ROSSFELD: They wanted an absolute guarantee for security. And obviously, in Iraq, you know, that situation is never guaranteed.
GARRELS: It was back to the drawing board. In the end, the Iraqi army battalion deployed 300 men. U.S. troops had to be brought in to clear roads leading up to the tower. American helicopters provided air cover.
The tower is now up, doubling the amount of power reaching southern Baghdad where people have been getting only one to two hours of electricity a day. The question now is how long this electricity line will stay up.
Insurgents, wishing to show the government is powerless, are still active in the area. The Iraqi army, spread thin, is asking local citizen volunteers to help provide security. But some locals believe that by providing more power to Baghdad, they will get less. That's not the case, but that's the way some see it.
General Ed Cardon doesn't rule out future attacks. But if there's a problem with the tower again, he at least hopes it won't take so long to fix.
Anne Garrels, NPR News, Baghdad.
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