When his military Hercules aircraft touched down in Baghdad, the retired US general given the task of rebuilding the defeated country was swept away in a 12-vehicle convoy and took up residence in a moated, colonnaded palace boasting all the marble not already in Florence or Tikrit.

But the trappings of vanquished power contrasted sharply with the jackets-off, “we’re-in-this-together” tone of the diminutive Vietnam veteran who was chosen by President Bush as Iraq’s viceroy/colonial administrator. He is known officially as head of the Pentagon’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (Orha).

Just don’t say ruler.

“The new ruler of Iraq is going to be an Iraqi. I don’t rule anything,” General Garner, 65, insisted during a whirlwind first-day tour of a hospital, sewage plant and power station. “I’m the coalition facilitator to establish a different environment where these people can pull things together themselves and begin a self-government process.”

Slapping backs, he assured Iraqis repeatedly that his job was simply to help them to do the jobs that they were already qualified to do, and said that his priority was to restore water and electricity.

Yet, as he was ushered from hospital wing to power station control centre, he refused to give any deadline for his fledgeling team’s departure.

Challenged on his recent assertion that he aimed “to work ourselves out of a job within 90 days”, he backtracked yesterday, saying: “I don’t think I would put 90 days as a mark on the wall; we will be here as long as it takes. But we’ll leave fairly rapidly.”

Then he climbed into a grey station wagon and was driven at speed into the centre of Baghdad, followed by a convoy of nine Humvees and three security vehicles carrying British and American security guards.

From their open-topped roofs, the Humvee gunners gestured to Iraqi drivers with a universal language — a hand and a machinegun — to give way. Few, if any, knew the identity of the passing convoy — US military vehicles are a daily sight in Baghdad — and some passers-by waved and smiled, with no trace of hostility.

Arriving at the 700-bed Yarmuk Hospital in western Baghdad, General Garner and his British deputy, Major- General Tim Cross, walked across broken glass blown out of windows shattered by coalition bombing and looting to visit the generator, a continuing source of problems. It was here, on the first stop of the day, that early signs of antipathy — albeit expressed politely — emerged.

It has not escaped any Iraqi’s notice that, after a visit to Israel two years ago General Garner backed a statement by a Jewish lobby group praising the Israeli Army for “remarkable restraint” when dealing with Palestinians during the intifada.

“I am afraid of his relationship with the Israelis,” Jawdat al-Abaidy, an orthopaedic surgeon, said. “We’ve all read about this. We’ll have to wait and see.”

But they heard him out courteously and it was in the hospital lecture hall, where he addressed 100 doctors and medical staff, that the Garner approach crystallised. Rather like a football manager addressing a defeated team, he combined flattery with exhortation, heaping all the blame on the recently departed head coach and capitalising on the Iraqis’ acute sense of past greatness by urging them on to old heights.

“I look at people in this room and I know that this room represents some of the brightest health people in the Middle East,” he told them. “Iraq has one of the brightest, most vibrant, richest societies in the world.

“At one time Iraq set the standards for the entire world. Civilisation began here. Government began here. Laws began here. What we need to do from this day forth is we need to give birth to a new system for Iraq.”

Standing up for greater effect, he said: “We will work together and we will make this better, and we will take you back to where you have been before — the best in the Middle East.”

Some were impressed with the general’s manner and were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. “He talks well, we feel we are free to express ourselves, not like the bad one, the previous one,” Saad Mohammed, a doctor, said.

But the consensus appeared to be negative. Luay al- Hafidh, a specialist physician, elicited nodding heads from colleagues when he said: “We don’t think lightly about an American general running Iraq. He’s a foreigner running our country.

“This is the usual talk of a foreign invader at the beginning in order to gain the hearts of the people. I don’t know about his background or capabilities, but I know he is a retired general. Can he run a civilian organisation? I doubt it.”

The second visit, to a sewage plant beside the Tigris, proved to be even less encouraging when the local officials failed to turn up.

The next stop was more hopeful. At Baghdad South power station, one of the plants where Iraqi and US engineers are struggling to restore electricity, Orha officials said that 100,000 more people were receiving power than had the day before, and hoped that the trend would continue.

Major Andy Backus — “Hey, Andy” to the general — listed the problems: power lines damaged by bombing; looting of spare parts; broken main power lines and a vandalised national power control centre that must be replaced. Poor communications and lack of security complicated matters. But, he added brightly: “Hopefully this evening we’ll have lights on in 10 per cent of Baghdad. Inshallah (God willing).” Garner nodded approval, slapped “Andy” again on the shoulder, and left.

You could just see two pins beneath his lapel. The Stars and Stripes and the Iraqi flag.

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president