After spending about seven months coaching Iraqis on the finer points of self-rule, Kurt Schaake is optimistic that the scheduled transfer of power will have a positive outcome — if America stays the course.

“Is it going to run smoothly? No,” the Lawrence native said of the pending transition. “They want to do it, but there are a lot of things they aren’t prepared for.”

Schaake, a graduate of Lawrence High School and Kansas University, recently returned to his home in Colorado Springs, Colo., after spending nearly seven months in Iraq. His job was to advise Iraqis on how to rebuild their cities’ infrastructures.

Schaake also taught Iraqis how to form local government entities and run public services. They had no concept of how to run a city council form of government, get the public to attend meetings, run a street department or prepare city budgets, Schaake said. Before Saddam Hussein was removed from power, all of those decisions were made in Baghdad, he said.

“They had 30 years of a centralized government, and you can’t do this in months,” Schaake said.

He noted that eastern European countries that were under Communist dictatorships until 10 years ago faced similar problems.

“They are just now getting a feel for (democracy),” he said. “Iraq isn’t there yet.”

The United States should continue to help Iraq despite continuing problems with insurgents and renegade clerics such as Muqtada al-Sadr, who led an uprising in Najaf, Schaake said. Most Iraqis were still supportive of Americans, he said. Al-Sadr doesn’t have a strong following among mainstream Iraqis.

“Everybody I worked with was absolutely thankful that both the American military and civilians were over there,” Schaake said. “They didn’t care for everything we did. They really want to get on with democratic government and get on with their lives.”

Kurt Schaake, center, visits with a group of Iraqis while working as a contractor in the Baghdad area. Schaake, a civil engineer, spent seven months advising Iraqis how to rebuild their cities' infrastructures.

The 49-year-old civil engineer went to Iraq as a contractor for Research Triangle Institute. He worked in the Baghdad area and the Sunni Triangle, an area north and west of the capital known for its political instability and opposition to the U.S. presence. He lived in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown.

Despite increasing violence, Schaake said he felt safe most of the time — even in late March after three American civilian contractors were killed and their bodies dragged through the streets of Fallujah, a city in the Sunni Triangle.

After the Fallujah incident, Schaake received e-mails from Iraqis saying that those who killed the contractors were not Iraqis and that Iraqis wouldn’t do such things. Schaake also found out that Iraqis felt dishonored when they saw Americans traveling with a lot of bodyguards.

“If I went into a community and suddenly looked overly defensive or if they thought I had too much security obviously around me, that would be frowned upon, and I would be told about it,” Schaake said. “I ended up taking that at face value and it seemed to work for me — at least in the places I worked.”

When there were reasons for concern about safety, Iraqis told Schaake, he said, and they told him places to avoid while traveling.

Driving fast

When Schaake traveled outside Tikrit, he usually rode in a two-vehicle convoy consisting of GMC sport utility vehicles. Speeds were up to 100 mph. Schaake rode in the back seat behind the driver and an armed security guard.

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Twice roadside bombs exploded as Schaake’s vehicle passed by. The first one, he said, was a small explosion and did not cause a problem. The second bomb was larger, and Schaake said he might have been killed had he not been in an armored vehicle. Not all the SUVs he traveled in were armored.

In another incident, a few armed insurgents tried to shoot at Schaake’s vehicle. As his convoy approached a checkpoint, the men appeared from behind trees and were bringing up their AK-47s. His guard shot them.

“I assume he killed them. They dropped,” Schaake said. “Actually, it was less unnerving than you might think. Everything kind of happens quickly.

“It’s a different environment,” Schaake continued. “Maybe it’s a little bit like the Old West. There’s lots of shooting, lots of commotion — lots of stuff that goes on and so you get used to all that.”

Schaake was attending a meeting in Baghdad when his company decided it should pull out most of its contractors because some of its offices were being attacked or threatened.

‘Really sick’

Schaake applied for a contracting job in Iraq because he got to know a brother of Coalition Provisional Authority chief L. Paul Bremer who lives in Colorado. He said he was impressed by stories about Bremer’s work, and he always wanted to do some work internationally.

Shortly after arriving in Iraq last fall, Schaake sent his dad, Lawrence resident Don Schaake, a picture of himself sitting on a gold throne in one of Saddam’s former palaces. The picture appeared in the Journal-World. Schaake remembered that on the wall in front of him was a painting of the city of Jerusalem. On another wall was a painting depicting a rocket that has just taken off to bomb Jerusalem.

“At first it was kind of intriguing and laughable,” Schaake said of sitting on the throne. “Then you sit there and you go, ‘you know, this is just sick. This guy was really sick.'”

Though Schaake said he was glad to be home, he said he wouldn’t hesitate to return to Iraq.

“I’d go back in a heartbeat,” he said.