With just weeks to go before the Coalition Provisional Authority hands over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, Bremer, 62, the CPA's chief administrator, is the U.S. government's man of the moment. As the handover nears, he puts "in 18-hour days, shuttling among meetings with military personnel, Iraqi interest groups and the people charged with restoring power and water. With resentment among Iraqis at an all-time high in light of the Abu Ghraib prison revelations—and with U.S. soldiers dying daily in attacks by insurgents—these last weeks could prove the most challenging in his 13-month tour.
It was, in part, Bremer's consensus-building skills that prompted President Bush to tap the Connecticut-born Republican diplomat for the job. Fluent in French, Dutch and Norwegian, and known as "Jerry" to his friends (because his birthday, Sept. 30, falls on St. Jerome's day), Bremer served 23 years with the State Department, including stints at U.S. embassies in Afghanistan and Malawi, before becoming chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism.
Now he talks to the White House every day from a secure red phone in his dusty, sparsely decorated office. From another line, he makes calls to his wife of 37 years, Frances, 62, an author; son Paul, 33, a salesman; and daughter Leila, 31, a psychologist. PEOPLE correspondent Pete Norman spent four days with Bremer in Iraq.
What's a typical day like for you?
I usually get up around 5.1 try to work out on a bicycle or treadmill and I get into the office around 6. Then I have about an hour of desk work before my Arabic-language training. Then I start my basic staff meetings. Every day is different. The day can be a whole lot of meetings with tribal sheiks; the last couple of days there have been other meetings about [the fighting in] Fallujah [and] Najaf. I went to Tikrit yesterday and today I went to Fallujah to spend a couple of hours with the commanders. I try to get down to the mess hall [for lunch] because I think it is important to be down there. I like to visit our troops and see how they are doing. I spend a lot of time on Blackhawks. Hours. There are not a lot of pros [to] traveling in Blackhawks and hopefully there is nobody shooting at you.
I am usually at my desk for dinner. I try to wrap up by 10 or 11, but some nights it's 1 or 2 by the time I call it quits.
What would you say to Iraqis about the torture by American troops at Abu Ghraib?
I am outraged by what a few of our soldiers did to you and did to all Americans by the way their actions reflect on our nation. For those who have lost confidence in us, we will do everything we can to regain it.
There has also been increased fighting in the past few months. How has all the killing affected you?
Any day we lose an American soldier is a tragedy. And I pray that their family understands that the sacrifice they have made truly will make the world a safer and better place. It may not be obvious as it gets lost in the nightly images of Abu Ghraib and Nick Berg. But we are making a serious effort right now to change a country and change a part of the world that will ultimately make America safer.
What keeps you going?
It's not caffeine! I am a retired triathlete, and I try to pace myself. You can't treat this job as a 100-meter sprint; it's basically a very long marathon.
How often do you check in with Washington?
I talk to Dr. [Condoleezza] Rice probably five or six times a week. I have regular meetings with Secretary [Colin] Powell and Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld, and the Vice President. I also talk to the President whenever he needs to talk, probably two or three times a week.
And how often do you like to check in with your family?
I try to call my wife every day and I try to talk to my kids at least once a week. I can talk to them on the telephone fairly regularly and I have e-mail—and these days with e-mail you can send out pictures.
Do you ever despair?
I'm optimistic. We've made a lot of progress; we've done something like 18,000 individual reconstruction projects all over the country—painting schools, building work and fixing hospitals. We've got electricity back to prewar levels. We've restored the water supply and are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, but it is still not enough. I do think that the coverage in the press is not always balanced. I don't use the term despair, but it is frustrating because we know things are actually better than often portrayed.
But are the Iraqis really ready for representative government? What about the suicide bombings, the sectarian strife, the daily death toll?
I think Iraq is on the road now to a democratic future and it will be stable. We obviously still have a security problem, but I do think we will make it. We will certainly have some more difficult times ahead, but we never thought it was going to be smooth. We have a lot of fine young men and women putting their lives at risk and some of them die. There are a lot of civilians putting their lives at risk too. Despite all of the crises, the ups and downs, and there are plenty of them, we have done a great thing here and we are going to see it through.
What are your plans for life after June 30, when the CPA hands over power to an interim government?
I am going to go to a house in Vermont that we bought two weeks before being asked to take this job. Really, I'm not thinking of another job at this point in time. I want to reconnect with my family and recharge my batteries.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
