COMMENT

SINCE the appointment of General Jay Garner to run the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq was first announced just over two months ago the media have been trying to discover what to call him: Governor, Viceroy, Head of Interim Administration, Director-General, and several other names have been suggested but without recognition by Washington. When the genial general arrived in Baghdad on Monday he refused to give himself a title but said he was the “coalition facilitator to establish a different environment where these people can pull things together themselves and begin a self-government process”. Leaving aside the surprising fact that a person charged with such a task should be responsible to the Pentagon rather than, say, the State Department or the White House itself, everyone will wish General Garner well in what will be an exceptionally difficult task. In his first forty-eight hours on the job he has undertaken a whirlwind tour of his far-flung territory but understandably has not been near the town of Karbala, only 50 miles from Baghdad, where extraordinary scenes have been witnessed as vast, uncountable crowds of Shias from many parts of Iraq have been congregating to commemorate the slaying thirteen centuries ago of the Shia hero, Hussein, grandson of the Prophet. Although in origin a religious ceremony this pilgrimage to Karbala is also of a profound political importance that any “coalition facilitator” will need to think about very carefully indeed.