So what the hell is going on in Iraq? It has been one month since large scale combat in Iraq was declared to be finished and five weeks since the fall of Baghdad. The reconstruction has gone on longer than the war itself at this point and chaos still reigns. At this point, order should have been restored and actual reconstruction started. Nothing of the sort seems to have taken place. Rather, confusion is still the order of the day.

The US has appointed a new administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, a former terrorism expert. The US administrator for Baghdad, Barbara Bodine, has returned to Washington amid criticism that vital services are not being restored quickly enough. A senior US official was quoted recently as saying that "a very different organisation" will be in place by the end of the month but apparently Jay Garner, the head of the Office of Reconstruction will remain in Iraq. Many observers see Bremer's appointment as a clear signal that all is not well, with US officials privately admitting that they underestimated what was involved involved in running post-war Iraq.

Bremer will have to decide which Iraqis join the interim administration and will lead the 'de-baathification' of the government. So far, the US has kept minor Baath party members in positions where they thought it was necessary to have someone with experience to help run the country. The BBC says Bremer "needs to launch a more assertive approach to tackling crime, violence, lack of electricity and running water, and try to get more police on the streets and ministries up and running."

Several Baghdad neighbourhoods still lack electricity and running water, rubbish is piling up in the streets and many shopkeepers are reportedly too afraid of looters to re-open their businesses. There is a lack of security, ministries are not working properly and salaries are not being paid. Iraqi electrical plants run on the fuel oil and diesel, but are not using it because the power grid is not working. Oil refineries can't ship diesel and fuel oil, so their pipelines and storage tanks are full. Because there is no storage, the refineries can produce only limited quantities of gasoline. This has led to shortages and rising tensions at gas stations.

The power grid seems to be central to the rebuilding effort. US administrators accused vandals and Baathist saboteurs of undermining the effort to rebuild the power grid. An Army Corps of Engineers spokesman expected to have the system tied together by June 1, depending on the vandalism.

The US administration says the threat from Baathist holdouts is the most serious law enforcement issue facing coalition forces, but basic street crime is also a major problem. The perception of most Iraqis, rich or poor, is that Americans are unwilling to restore order. The US is also coming under increasing criticism from a Iraqi political leaders, including the exiles that the US brought back to Iraq after the war. But Donald Rumsfeld seems to finally get the idea that the looting in Iraq is more that just 'untidy'. The US announced today that it intends to have 4,000 military police patrolling Baghdad with Iraqi police by June 1 but that "it will take time" to bring order. In the meantime, chaos reigns.