Lords of misrule still in charge at the Baghdad bubble
The unreal atmosphere of the green zone in Iraq’s capital continues to drag down the nation
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
One day early in 2004 as I was eating a meal in the green zone, the seven-square-mile enclave of air-condi-tioned comfort in Baghdad, I asked one of the Americans at my table what he thought of the massive suicide bombs that had killed dozens of people at a Shi’ite shrine in the city that morning. quoteYeah, I saw something about it on my office television,quote he replied. quoteBut I didn’t watch the full report. I was too busy working on my democracy project.quote
It was a measure of the air of unreality in the green zone during the 14 months that the American viceroy Paul Bremer presided over the occupation government in Iraq. This fortified compound around Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace was Little America: most of the staff had never worked outside the United States and about half had obtained their first passport to travel there.
I have detailed some of the absurdities of life inside the Baghdad bubble in my book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, which was inspired by my two years as the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Baghdad. One 24-year-old official with no background in finance was given the job of resurrecting the Baghdad stock exchange. Another aide, tasked with devising new traffic regulations, down-loaded those of Maryland from the internet. A 21-year-old charged with helping to rehabilitate the interior ministry boasted that his most meaningful job to date had been as an ice cream truck driver.
Three years on, the carnage continues. As a quotesurgequote of 28,000 American troops were deployed in and around Baghdad last week, a suicide bomber detonated a lorryload of explosives outside one of the city’s most famous mosques, killing more than 80 people and injuring dozens more.
Inside the green zone, only the main players have changed. True, the Americans are still there, but as diplomats at the US embassy, contractors and security guards. They are not the focus of concern at present, but rather the Iraqi leadership, which is dangerously disconnected from the reality on the ground. The results are as pernicious as those of ambassador Bremer’s isolation.
The sectarian fighting that is occurring on the streets is not simply about religious zealotry.
It’s a naked grab for power that begins inside the green zone, where Iraqi political leaders are fighting for influence. [more]