Former general who will run Iraq

By PAUL HOLMES in Washington

When the Pentagon called on Jay Garner in January to become Washington's "viceroy-designate" in Iraq, a thought may have flashed through his mind of a scene from the past.

The year was 1991 and a crowd of grateful Kurds was carrying Mr Garner shoulder-high for a hero's send-off at the end of his humanitarian mission to shield them from the ravages of Saddam Hussein's army.

Twelve years later, as Mr Garner, 64, prepares to go back as US President George W Bush's temporary ruler, the retired three-star general might be forgiven for asking whether a hero's return awaits him.

Aid organisations have complained that making them operate under a former military man, who will answer to US commander General Tommy Franks, will complicate their task.

At the United Nations, which worries it will be cut out of a major role in Iraq, some diplomats are suspicious of Mr Garner's military past, his defence industry links and his reported favouring of the exiled Iraqi National Congress opposition group.

Many Arabs and Muslims mistrust him after it emerged recently that Mr Garner visited Israel in 1998 at the expense of a Jewish lobby group that argues the US needs a strong and secure Israel to project force in the Middle East.

Mr Garner has said little in public about his plans for a postwar Iraq.

Associates describe him as a straight talker, modest but efficient, with a gift for getting things done.

"He wouldn't dodge bullets, he'd bite them," retired Air Force General Thomas McInerney told Fortune magazine.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war