In a country with a murky political future, a shaky infrastructure and militant remnants of the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, Jay Garner has a tough job.

But with all the uncertainty ahead, the retired U.S. general's top priority as Iraq's postwar administrator was clear: restore basic services. Until the water and lights are back on, the broader issues and the tough political fights would have to wait.

"What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do," the 65-year-old Garner said upon arriving in Baghdad April 21, 12 days after the capital was secured by coalition forces.

Garner's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid, or ORHA, reports to U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks. The mission of ORHA's 450-person staff consists of directing the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure, overseeing the establishment of an interim government and coordinating humanitarian aid delivery.

While ORHA's task is likely to take some time, most Iraqis have extended only a limited welcome.

"On the issue of the interim authority, I think General Garner's work of reconstituting the basic services will finish in a few weeks," Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the U.S.-financed Iraqi National Congress, said the day before Garner arrived in Baghdad. "Meanwhile, we must start the process of choosing an Iraqi interim authority to take over the reins of power in the country and the various departments of the government."

And the Bush administration has tried to assure Iraqis and the rest of the world that Garner isn’t Iraq’s new dictator or president.

"I know Garner. He is deeply democratic," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Egyptian TV April 16. "He believes deeply in the right of the Iraqi people to decide their own future, certainly to decide their own foreign policy."

But some remain uneasy because creating an Iraqi-led government isn’t likely to be an easy job, and Garner hasn't put a time limit on his stay. "We will be here as long as it takes," he said. "We will leave fairly rapidly."

Garner came to the ORHA after six years in private sector technology firms and thirty years in the U.S. Army. After retiring from active service in 1997, Garner accepted a position as head of SY Technology, a firm that supplies much of the technical support for many of the missile systems used by the military.

In 2002, L-3 Communications, a Texas-based technology firm, purchased SY. Garner became a board member of the new company and, in May of that year, head of its Coleman Research division. In March, L-3 was awarded a $1.5 billion Pentagon contract, for which they were the only bidder, to support U.S. special operations forces in the war on terrorism.

Garner's close ties to the Pentagon and his contractor position have come under fire by some. Last year, Biff Baker, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Army Space Command, charged that Garner used improper influence to win $100 million in contracts for SY Technology. Garner denied any wrongdoing and sued Baker for defamation.

"I do not go to my friends for business," Garner said in sworn testimony last year, the Associated Press reported. "I get business from my friends, but it's not solicited by me. It's given to us because of the quality of our company."

Baker and Garner settled out of court in January of 2003.

Despite the scrutiny it has received, hi move to high-tech firms was a natural one for Garner, who directed the Reagan administration's Star Wars program in the 1980s. Garner also worked on the Patriot missile-defense system during the 1991 Gulf War. After that war, Garner defended the system when reports surfaced that it had offered only limited success in downing Iraqi Scud missiles.

In April 1992, Garner, then the Army assistant chief of staff for operations, plans and force development, testified that revised assessments of Patriot performance in the Gulf was insignificant, according to the Journal of the Air Force Association.

"War is a bottom-line business," Garner told a House committee. "The bottom line on Desert Storm is that the United States and its allies won."

But Garner's approach and testimony irked those who had been critical of the system.

"He was arrogant and very discourteous," Theodore A. Postol, an MIT professor and leading critic of the Patriot system, told The Washington Post. "He was part of a group of senior officers who were lying about Patriot's performance."

Despite his, at times, controversial work and testimony, many Iraqis, including Chalabi and Kurdish leaders, have said they believe he is the right man for the job.

"I think he's a good man," Najmaldin Karim, the president of the Washington Kurdish Institute, told NPR in April 2003. "He's very capable and competent."

-- By Gail Martin, PBS NewsHour