Saturday, December 23, 2006
The Emerald City
Just finished reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a Washington Post writer who spent nearly 2 years in Iraq from the time of the infamous felling of Saddam's statue to the end of the reign of the "Coatlition Provisional Authority". It's fascinating, disturbing and outrage-inducing reading. I'm sure those 30% out there who still support the war will find it offensive because of the truths it shares, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how we got to be where we are in this conflict now.
The main keys to gaining employment for the CPA were loyalty to the Bush administration, and belief in certain conservative principles (anti-abortion, flat taxes etc..). The post-war plan consisted mostly of pie-in the sky ideas by 20 something conservatives, many of whom had never set foot outside the U.S. before, but were hired to help remake Iraq in the Bush administration's vision of America due to their connections to conservative think tanks and politicians. Their focus was on a grand-remaking of Iraq in an American Conservative utopia, rather than getting the country back on it's feet in a practical fashion. As a result, months and millions were wasted, resulting in rushed "solutions" so as to be ready to claim significant progress in time for the November 2004 elections.
Chandrasekaran ends several of the chapters with extremely telling anecdotal vignettes, from the Halliburton managers who ordered all cats in the Green Zone killed (supposedly for fear of disease, a fear not entirely justified according to a State Dept biologist who had spent time there), to the CPA staffer who declined offers of historical books on Iraq from native translators in favor of his dog-eared 1970's tourist guide to the country, about which he said, "Everything I need is in here". Perhaps my favorite of the vignettes was a joke written by CPA staffer Joshua Paul, as it seems to sum up the entire messed up situation...
Why did the Iraqi Chicken cross the road?
CPA:The fact that the chicken crossed the road shows that decision making authority has switched to the chicken in advance of the scheduled June 30th transition of power. From now on the chicken is responsible for its own decisions.
Halliburton:We were asked to help the chicken cross the road. Given the inherent risk of road crossing, and the rarity of chickens, this operation will only cost $326,004.
Muqtada as-Sadr:The chicken was a tool of the evil Coalition and will be killed.
US Army Military Police:We were directed to prepare the chicken to cross the road. As part of these preparations, individual soldiers ran over the chicken repeatedly, and plucked the chicken. We deeply regret the occurrence of any chicken rights violations.
Peshmerga (Kurdish militia):The chicken crossed the road, and will continue to cross the road, to show its independence and to transport the weapons it needs to defend itself. However, in future, to avoid problems, the chicken will be called a duck, and will wear a plastic bill.
1st Cavalry:The chicken had no right to cross the road as it did not have the correct identification. Thus, the chicken was searched and detained. We apologize for any embarrassment to the chicken.
Al Jazeera:The chicken was forced to cross the road multiple times at gunpoint by a large group of occupation soldiers, according to witnesses. The chicken was then fired upon intentionally, in yet another example of the abuse of innocent Iraqi chickens.
CIA:We cannot confirm or deny any involvement in the chicken-road-crossing incident.
Translators:Chicken he cross street because bad she tangle regulation. Future chicken table against my request.
The main keys to gaining employment for the CPA were loyalty to the Bush administration, and belief in certain conservative principles (anti-abortion, flat taxes etc..). The post-war plan consisted mostly of pie-in the sky ideas by 20 something conservatives, many of whom had never set foot outside the U.S. before, but were hired to help remake Iraq in the Bush administration's vision of America due to their connections to conservative think tanks and politicians. Their focus was on a grand-remaking of Iraq in an American Conservative utopia, rather than getting the country back on it's feet in a practical fashion. As a result, months and millions were wasted, resulting in rushed "solutions" so as to be ready to claim significant progress in time for the November 2004 elections.
Chandrasekaran ends several of the chapters with extremely telling anecdotal vignettes, from the Halliburton managers who ordered all cats in the Green Zone killed (supposedly for fear of disease, a fear not entirely justified according to a State Dept biologist who had spent time there), to the CPA staffer who declined offers of historical books on Iraq from native translators in favor of his dog-eared 1970's tourist guide to the country, about which he said, "Everything I need is in here". Perhaps my favorite of the vignettes was a joke written by CPA staffer Joshua Paul, as it seems to sum up the entire messed up situation...
Why did the Iraqi Chicken cross the road?
CPA:The fact that the chicken crossed the road shows that decision making authority has switched to the chicken in advance of the scheduled June 30th transition of power. From now on the chicken is responsible for its own decisions.
Halliburton:We were asked to help the chicken cross the road. Given the inherent risk of road crossing, and the rarity of chickens, this operation will only cost $326,004.
Muqtada as-Sadr:The chicken was a tool of the evil Coalition and will be killed.
US Army Military Police:We were directed to prepare the chicken to cross the road. As part of these preparations, individual soldiers ran over the chicken repeatedly, and plucked the chicken. We deeply regret the occurrence of any chicken rights violations.
Peshmerga (Kurdish militia):The chicken crossed the road, and will continue to cross the road, to show its independence and to transport the weapons it needs to defend itself. However, in future, to avoid problems, the chicken will be called a duck, and will wear a plastic bill.
1st Cavalry:The chicken had no right to cross the road as it did not have the correct identification. Thus, the chicken was searched and detained. We apologize for any embarrassment to the chicken.
Al Jazeera:The chicken was forced to cross the road multiple times at gunpoint by a large group of occupation soldiers, according to witnesses. The chicken was then fired upon intentionally, in yet another example of the abuse of innocent Iraqi chickens.
CIA:We cannot confirm or deny any involvement in the chicken-road-crossing incident.
Translators:Chicken he cross street because bad she tangle regulation. Future chicken table against my request.
