If it’s true that opposites attract, Garry (’77) and Betsy Phillips will tell you that they did not agree on much of anything before they married. Today, the couple agrees on one thing for sure – the United States must succeed in Iraq. Middle East stability hangs in the balance. Garry and Betsy are directly involved in nurturing a democracy in this cradle of civilization. He is developing a U.S. Marshals-type service for judicial security, while Betsy directs the Office of Joint Strategic Planning and Assessment at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Garry began a 20-year Navy career shortly after graduating from high school, a career that included embassy assignments in Tokyo and Sri Lanka. He retired from the Navy in 1975 and graduated from UT Martin in 1977 with majors in political science and English. He taught English at Westview High School in Martin for two years and then worked in UT Martin’s Office of International Programs, where he taught English as a Second Language.

Betsy earned a political science degree and, like Garry, a master’s degree in public administration at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, where they first met. Both were selected for the Presidential Management Intern Program (now called the Presidential Management Fellowship Program), which seeks about 200 people each year who have master’s degrees to work for the federal government in mid-management positions. When they arrived in Washington, neither knew anyone else, so they started spending a lot of time together and eventually married in 1985.

The Phillips accumulated significant federal government experience before accepting their current appointments in Iraq. They share strong, non-partisan views about what has happened –– and might happen –– in Iraq, and both believe they can make a difference through their service in this volatile part of the world. “I think what the United States and the multinational forces are doing in Iraq is very important to stability, in not only Iraq, but the entire Middle East,” Garry said.

Betsy’s office is unique to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, she said, in that the embassy works with the U.S. military and the other multinational forces in Iraq on long-range planning.
The plan is updated regularly in cooperation with the military, and besides managing this plan, the office’s seven-member staff engages in “red-team analysis,” a kind of devil’s advocate exercise in which assumptions are challenged. “It’s really very, very unique,” Betsy says of the process. “We take a look at a lot of the statistics and try to determine what’s happening in the country based upon what we’re seeing.”

Although the challenges in Iraq are huge, Betsy said that progress is being made. She said that the Iraqis are moving at “warp speed” to establish an effective government, considering how many years it took the United States to accomplish the same thing. Iraq is divided into 18 provinces, which are roughly the equivalent of states. The good news, Garry said, is that 16 of 18 are doing well. “We are, one by one, quote ‘turning over’ those provinces to Iraqi local governments. We’re stepping back militarily and we’ve trained up the army and police, and they’re making positive strides in maintaining order. The local governments are operating,” he said.

While some things are working well, other aspects of the fledgling democracy are not. Crucial to the new government’s success is a functional, effective judicial system, and Garry’s main focus is to establish plans for a judicial protection service. Modeled after the U.S. Marshals Service, his group has developed a plan for protecting judges, witnesses, lawyers and courthouses. Unlike U.S. courthouses, heavily armed individuals are common in Baghdad courthouses.

Security fears are well founded. More than 35 judges, along with more than 45 bodyguards, have been assassinated since 2003. Unfortunately, those currently providing protection in the judicial system are not prepared for the job. “They’re either untrained or not well trained at this point, and we’re trying to pull them together and make them a unified service,” he said.
Garry and Betsy don’t have ordinary jobs, but then life in Iraq is anything but ordinary. They live in a trailer-like “hootch” that’s about 30 feet by 10 feet with two rooms and a bathroom in the middle. They walk to work and arrive in their embassy offices by about 7 a.m. The embassy building is three stories high and was once the main Hussein palace in Baghdad. The room he shares with about 40 other people was Saddam Hussein’s “decision room,” which he said includes “a painting of scud missiles flying off into the air. It’s kind of garish.”

Personal comfort and safety are among the many sacrifices being made by the Phillips and countless others for Iraq’s future. Both are clear that the U.S. must succeed in establishing a democratic government. Betsy quoted Dr. Tony Cordesman, senior fellow with the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, D.C., in an August 2007 report in which he said, “Most certainly, while the U.S. may not be remembered for how we got into Iraq, we will most certainly be judged by how we leave it.”

Garry described Iraq as “like a linchpin or a keystone in the Middle East,” with its population of about 70 percent Shiite and 30 percent Sunni. “It is the only Arab country in the Middle East that is ruled by Shiites, even where the majority is Shiite,” he said. “And, to the east is Iran, which is Persian but Shiite, so Iran has an interest in Iraq holding its own as a Shiite nation.” To the south, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are strongly Sunni, while to the west are Jordan and Syria, also Sunni. “So Iran is sitting there just boiling and bubbling. If Iraq is not stable, the Middle East is not going to be stable,” Garry said.

The Phillips won’t forecast the future, but both have ideas as to what might happen several years out. “I think five years from now, you’ll still have a struggling democracy. We will have gone through at least one, maybe two more elections, which is an unfamiliar concept for Arab nations,” Betsy said. “You’ll probably find the provinces much more powerful than the national government as far as being able to take care of themselves.”

Garry’s work to establish a U.S. Marshal-type system will be a key to democracy and how well it works. “Without the courts and the judges being able to function, the rule of law is pretty much hopeless,” he said. “That’s what democratic or representational government is all about – being able to make laws, enforce them, and have them judged appropriately. So, if rule of law fails, it all fails.”