It shouldn't be a surprise that strong local governments are key to a country's stability. But now, that concept is enjoying a surge of its own in Iraq. There may be a bonus for us, though, if we apply the techniques we are using to create local leadership there to address infrastructure problems here.

Recently, groups of U.S. advisors have been working with local government officials in Iraq on water, sewer, electricity and garbage collection projects. Those provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) have spread into all 18 Iraq provinces, helping to change the habits of local officials who are used to the central government making all the decisions.

With our help, Iraq's local leaders, along with provincial officials, are learning to manage their own budgets as well as work together on larger projects. At the same time, we also are realizing that Iraq's future depends as much on local governments taking responsibility for delivering public services as the need for the country's military to provide security against internal and external attacks.

The State Department increased the number of PRTs in the last year from 10 to 25. One PRT team leader told a Financial Times reporter of how they recently helped convince the national government to build a police academy in one community. Only the second such facility in the country, the academy will teach proper crime investigation techniques and help protect a country where 50 percent of people accused of security violations are acquitted because of the lack of solid evidence from the police. Locally, the new academy will help solidify the community by attracting jobs. It also will bolster the credibility of the local government officials, who, like their counterparts across the country, are battling the insurgents for the confidence of their residents.

The PRT's core structure is simple: they are multi-disciplinary and involve civilians, government agencies and the military. PRTs gather information, analyze problems and bridge communication between the local, provincial and national governments. However, PRT members are only advisors and teachers with no authority.

Nevertheless, we can learn from what appears to be working in Iraq. We can create PRT-style teams to address our escalating water and transportation infrastructure problems. They would assess infrastructure needs locally and regionally, determine the priorities and, most importantly, fund the projects. An American Reconstruction Project of this scale would be staggering, but as the Iraqi PRT program may be showing us, creating teams of experts from both the public and private sectors to work with every level of government on a nation's most serious problems shouldn't be just a foreign concept.