Eric Whitaker has been in Baghdad less than two days. He's one of the 10 new leaders of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT's) dispatched from the State Department to Iraq over the weekend. The arrival of this new group doubles the number of PRT's currently operating in Iraq and is part of the administration's overall push to begin rebuilding neighborhoods - primarily in Baghdad - in conjunction with the new security plan initiated roughly six weeks ago.

Secretary of State Rice and Ambassador David Satterfield saw the PRT leaders off in an event on Friday attended by the media (video of Rice's remarks). Like the others, Whitaker is an experienced Foreign Service Officer who volunteered for his new post, leaving a position at the US Embassy in Khartoum.

The new PRT leaders spent the last month in Washington DC receiving a host of specialized training; from advanced security techniques to emergency medical services to Iraqi culture, language and history.

The new PRT's will work from forward operating bases (FOBs) in Iraq, not out of the Green Zone, which means they will be based as much as possible in the communities which they seek to improve. According to Whitaker, the goal of the PRTs is to be a catalyst for local development and to work directly with Iraqis to facilitate progress ranging from job creation, to delivery of municipal services, to improving local governance.

Whitaker said his first job is to survey the scene, meet with local leaders and produce an assessment of priorities and possible projects for his area of responsibility. He estimated it would take close to thirty days to get an understanding of the people and the challenges posed by his new job, which means he barely begun a difficult and dangerous assignment that will be critical to long term success in Iraq.