Iraqi Occupation in the Green Zone
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Understanding the full ramifications of the Iraqi invasion, occupation and insurgency that has become ever so potent in the aftermath of Saddam’s fall will take years and good retrospective analysis to fully grasp. Nevertheless, Mr. Chandrasekaran’s book is an excellent start.
Mr. Chandrasekaran documents the effort and ultimate colossal failure of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to lay the foundation of a successful and democratic
In the CPA, nepotism reigned supreme. Mr. Chandrasekaran noted the most important prerequisites to get a job working on one of the many colossal projects under the CPA’s umbrella (which encompassed almost everything save the military) were political connections to the Bush administration and ‘strict adherence to the President’s vision’ of a free and democratic
The incompetence in these positions would be comical if it was not in fact the truth. The person eventually tapped to rebuild the Bagdad Stock Exchange, for example, had NO experience with financial institutions or even basic finance for that matter. Mr. Chandrasekaran notes that this man’s only experience with entrepreneurship was as the Once-ler in Yale’s theatrical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. Getting the exchange up and running again for him was secondary to buying them computers, cell phones and writing US style regulations. This book is littered with a myriad of outrageous examples such as the aforementioned.
As an assistant managing editor for The Washington Post, it is clear Mr. Chandrasekaran wrote this book with the mind of an investigative journalist. The book is peppered with interesting details about life in the Green Zone and the people who inhabited it. Each chapter is broken up with what he called ‘scenes’ from the Green Zone. Each highlighted some anecdotal story about living in the ‘Emerald City’ from the large amounts of pork served in the presence of Muslims to an American General telling Iraqi’s to tell their children that the loud noise of American helicopters flying overhead at night were ‘the sound of freedom’.
The book is, in my opinion, a fair indictment of the boondoggle that has become the Bush administration’s foreign policy. The occupation reeked of nepotism, unbelievable administrative incompetence, and ideological blindness to the stark reality of the situation. Mr. Chandrasekaran’s criticism is not targeted at the War itself, rather the incompetent handling of the Iraqi occupation.
Imperial Life in the Emerald City is must read for anyone who is trying to understand what actually went on over the month’s the CPA was in charge of the governance of Iraq.
Tags: America, Bush, finance, financial, foreign policy, iraq, president, tution
