The United States has pledged to undertake an unprecedented rebuilding effort in Iraq — if it successfully ousts President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Officials already are organizing personnel who would travel to Iraq after the war to begin coordinating humanitarian aid and reconstruction, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The project would have an annual price tag of about $20 billion and would require the deployment of between 75,000 and 200,000 troops with a multi-year commitment, according to the Department of Defenses’ Council on Foreign Relations.

“It will be very important for the Bush administration to stress the extent of U.S. involvement, and also how they plan to involve the international community in the reconstruction effort,” said Christopher Jones, an associate political science professor and assistant chair of the political science department. “Americans often think about priorities at home, so if they view the rebuilding process as taking away money from social programs, draining the economy or further expanding the federal budget deficit, then I think there will be concerns.”

The first steps

The most important part of the lengthy rebuilding process likely will be the welfare of Iraq’s oil fields, which contribute between $18 and $27 billion toward annual oil revenues, according to Newsweek.

“The first thing should be to secure the oil fields, and if they’ve been damaged, to rebuild those,” said Jones, who’s an expert in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. “Oil lies at the center of Iraq’s wealth, and Iraq will need that wealth to rebuild after the war. It’s a major advantage that Iraq has, compared to a country like Yugoslavia.”

Another initial step would be a new constitution created by recognized Iraqi experts under the advisement of the United Nations. Also, many Iraqi institutions would be reconstituted by replacing all but junior staffers, according to Newsweek. The rehabilitation of civil institutions in Germany and Japan after World War II was a major factor in their postwar recoveries.

Melding cultures

The most unpredictable facet of the rebuilding process would be figuring out how Iraq’s three main cultural groups could coexist. The groups, which are the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, have disagreed throughout history.

Iraq’s multi-ethnic population would be just one of the hardships faced by the United States during rebuilding.

“First of all, we don’t know the extent of the damage,” Jones said. “Second, we don’t know whether we’re going to be doing it alone or with other members of the international community. Thirdly, there’s the whole political dimension, and whether we can get a country without a strong national identity, a country with a very multi-ethnic population, to work productively toward creating a new Iraq.”

U.S. involvement would be coordinated by the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. The office’s main goal is to pass Iraq’s governance to its people as soon as possible, “but with a government that expresses the free will of the people of Iraq,” according to the Defense Department.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said the United States is committed to making life better immediately for the Iraqi people.

Because the rebuilding process is hypothetical at this point, it is impossible to identify specifics. The United States probably would try to establish a viable democratic government, which would require a ground force of more than 100,000 troops, of which a substantial amount would have to remain for eight to 10 years, if not more, according to Newsweek.

If the United States and world community installs a new government while having a positive impact, it could create a more free and fair country that eventually could be replicated by other states in the region, Jones said.

“It might provide an opportunity in some way to meld Arab culture, sensitivity to the Islamic religion and democracy,” Jones said. “America is not going to build a democracy that Westerners recognize as a democracy.

“But the major caveat here is the fact that the U.S. will have to be determined to stay engaged in Iraq for a considerable period of time, and that’s not the way in which the U.S. traditionally looks at international problems,” Jones said. “There’s a saying that Americans like to do the cooking, but they don’t like to do the dishes.”

For information, visit the U.S. Defense Department Web site at www.defenselink.mil, the Council on Foreign Relations Web site at www.cfr.org and the Newsweek article at www.msnbc.com/news/843840.asp.