Best Book About the Iraq War

While on vacation to Atlanta, my reading material was the excellent book about the first year of the American occupation of Iraq: Imperial Life in the Emerald City. I'm even going to go on a limb here and say that it is the best book I've come across about the Iraq War. No, I haven't read all the books out there about the subject. The ones I have on my shelf are mainly personal memoirs written by the soldiers who served in Iraq (and even blogged about it). I've seen some books that are quite academic, comprehensive, wordy and dry.

Since I have been pondering for three years now whether I should seek a private contractor position in Iraq for a year, I really wanted to read a book specific about life in the Green Zone, which this book certainly covers. It's less about the war than about life inside this piece of America at the center of Baghdad. For instance, while all of Baghdad suffers from blackouts for hours each day, life in the Green Zone has electrical power 24/7. There are two worlds that exist in Baghdad, and life is far better inside the Green Zone than outside (the opposite of a prison).

This book was an alluring read. First, the cover (of the British-published version, which was sold at Powells City of Books in Portland for a discounted price) is quite attractive. I was drawn to it from a distance. Then, as I opened it to skim passages, I was drawn in by the writing style. The author (Rajiv Chandrasekaran) has created an immensely readable book. Its not dense like some other books I've seen of the Iraq War. The book doesn't get bogged down in wonky details. The writer presents the information in an easy to understand style and he has the gift of knowing what kind of details to include to make an interesting story. In essence, I could hardly put this book down. Though I didn't have time to read it in one or a few sittings, each moment I could spare reading, I couldn't wait to pick up this book and start reading where I left off. I'm glad that I brought it with me on my trip home, as I had several hours at a time with which to get absorbed in this inside look at life in the Green Zone.

What have I learned about the Coalition Provisional Authority? Nothing I hadn't heard before. Basically, it was incompetently run because Bush had appointed party loyalists and incompetent hacks into jobs they didn't qualify for, much to the horror of the State Department. In fact, there seemed to be turf wars between what the White House wanted, what the State Department wanted, what the Department of Defense wanted, and what the Central Intelligence Agency wanted. Vital information was kept from State Department bureaucrats because they were deemed too liberal even though many had more experience dealing with the Middle East than a fresh-out-of-college guy assigned the complicated task of restarting the Baghdad Stock Exchange (he wanted computers and other high tech stuff when Iraqis who had experience in the previous market only requested the basic supplies to get things started, such as a chalk board). Reading the ludicrous and futile efforts of the young "idealist" made me think of an equally absurd idea: building a rocket ship to the moon before cars were invented. To think that you can come into a country that endured 30 years of brutal dictatorship, in a poor part of the world (in terms of infrastructure and technology), and create an advanced country like the United States or Western Europe is laughingly absurd.

The author seems to put much of the blame for the disasterous post-invasion period on the shoulders of L. Paul Bremer III, the Viceroy who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority. He supposedly ran the country like a dictator himself, with little input from the Iraqis themselves. His goal was to create a pure capitalist and secular democracy. Despite his best intentions, Bremer's actions show the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that all people had the right to determine their own form of government. Who are we to go into a country we know little about and impose our values and form of government on a people who have no experience with secular democracy? Its up to the Iraqi people to determine what kind of government they want, not Viceroy Bremer.

What I really love about this book is that each chapter is divided by an amusing scene of life in the Green Zone. The scenes include details about secret meetings of Democrats who worked for the State Department (very few were open about their political views), a staffer who said "I'm not here for the Iraqis, I'm here for George W. Bush", the ratio of men to women and how the competition for dates was fierce, how no one wanted to read books about Iraq in their free time, jokes the British military and contractors made about Americans ("Yee haw is not a foreign policy"), the military dislike of the CPA (they called it "Can't Produce Anything"), how staffers adopted stray cats for pets and had to hide them after an extermination order was released, and even a wedding between two young staffers. Each of these interludes presented a more human face to the occupation of Iraq, which only helped illustrate the absurdities of the entire operation.

As I read the book and learned about the various departments requesting part of the appropriations money authorized by the U.S. Congress, I kept thinking how dumb Americans were in 2003 and it only made me angry (because I had misgivings about this war from many angles: morally, ethically, historically, and financially). Would all those 70% of Americans who supported this war (and called anti-war people "unpatriotic") in 2003 truly have supported the war if they knew how much money our country has had to pour into the reconstruction costs? This was money, after all, that Republicans had claimed we didn't have to fix our education and health care system. Yet, our government was doling out money to rebuild hospitals and universities in Iraq (which we bombed). It does not make sense at all! Every American should be required to read Imperial Life in the Emerald City. People need to not be such sheep in giving the president the approval to launch an unprovoked war. We're in the economic mess we're in partly because of all the money we dumped into the money pit that is known as Iraq.

One thing I love about our country is how we try to recreate the comforts of home no matter where we are. I lived on American bases overseas (the Philippines, Germany, and Sardinia). While its great to explore and learn about the country I lived in, it was also nice to have a place that reminded me a little bit of America. For instance, when I lived in Paradiso Barracks in La Maddalena, we had central heating in winter and air condition in the summer. When a Navy family I was friends with were staying in a 4 star hotel their last week in Sardinia, I visited them and was shocked that the hotel did not even have air condition! In the heat of a Mediterranean summer, air condition is a nice luxury to have. Americans are so spoiled! I also enjoyed eating at a restaurant in the barracks complex that served steak. There was a library with books in English, a video store, and a theater that showed movies straight from the U.S. (usually 4 to 6 months after stateside release). We were spoiled. I often wondered what Italians thought of us, able to pass through the security gates into a little piece of America in their country. I know that I would not like it if there were foreign military bases in our country.

Life in the Green Zone sounds like any American base you'll find overseas. The cafeteria serves Southern style food (the author said that ethnic foods like Indian or Moroccan were hard to come by) and there was no shortage of morale-boosting interest group meetings (Bible study groups, Democrats, and even a Baghdad chapter of Hash House Harriers). The more I read this book, the more I wanted to go there to experience for myself. When I was home on vacation, I talked with one guy at church whose former employee spent two years as a private contractor at Camp Anaconda. Basically, that guy completely paid off all his debts and saved up enough money to buy a house when he got back! All the more reason for me to go. However, I wouldn't want to do two years. But, I'm waiting to see how one or two job opportunities will pan out before I pursue "my Iraq option."

Before I read this book, I had no intention of reading Viceroy Bremer's A Year in Iraq. But because of the author seeming to place most of the blame for what went wrong on Bremer's micromanaging leadership style (he thought knew what was best for the Iraqis), I am now interested in reading Bremer's memoirs just to see what he has to say for himself. My impression of him is that he is a likable guy who was in over his head, but I don't know if he was truly incompetent.

My feelings about Iraq are still mixed. I was against the invasion for many reasons, but now that we're there, I just think it would be a mistake to leave. The Iraqi government is too weak to withstand the influence of Iran. Whatever your take on the conflict, I would highly recommend reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City. In fact, if you only read one book about Iraq, this is the one you should read. Its a cautionary tale for the ages, offering many examples of absurdist thinking. No wonder why the grand neo-conservative experiment has proven to be a costly failure thus far.