Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (4.5 stars)

I've read quite a few books about Iraq lately, so it was with some reluctance I picked up another, however I was intrigued given this book was the basis for the movie Green Zone. I'm glad I did - this is one of the best accounts of the war and reconstruction I have read. It takes a different tack and focuses not on the military aspects, but on the reconstruction efforts of the 'Coalition Provisional Authority' (CPA).

The narrative is characterised by the CPA's incompetence, cultural insensitivity, and cronyism. Every one of the staffers appointed to the CPA was vetted for their loyalty to the President and the Republican Party - answers to questions such as "Where do you stand on Roe vs. Wade?" were deemed much more important than experience in post-war reconstruction, or indeed any experience, since staffers in their early to mid 20s were handed hugely complex tasks, such as rebuilding the stock exchange.

John Agresto was handed the daunting task of of rehabilitating Iraq's university system (375,000 students, 22 campuses), he:

...had no background in post-conflict reconstruction and no experience in the Middle East. The institution he ran, St. John's College in Santa Fe, had fewer than five hundred students. But Agresto was connected: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's wife had been on the St. John's board...

This is particularly appalling since the US had a vast talent pool to draw from - many Arab experts, post-conflict experts and experienced diplomats from the State Department were ignored. In fact, State was seen as the enemy since it was inhabited by too many Democrats.

Little cultural sensitivity or desire to involve Iraqis in their countries' reconstruction was shown by the CPA. Hundreds of Iraqi secretaries and translators were forced to eat in the dining hall, which was:

a bottomless barrel of pork: sausage for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, pork chops for dinner.

CPA staffers mistakenly took their translators, who had good paying jobs with the CPA and plenty of good things to say about the occupation, as being representative of all Iraqis. Staffers lived in their own world inside the Green Zone where the power was reliable, the buffet full of American comfort food, and drinking was the main after-work activity:

Scores of CPA staffers, including women who had had the foresight to pack hot pants and four-inch heels, danced on an illuminated Baath Party star embedded in the floor.

The CPA made some major mistakes: Overzealous De-Baathification removed most of the educated and experienced people in Iraq from their jobs, including thousands of teachers. Standing down the army made thousands of trained soldiers instantly unemployed, which quickly resulted in the creation of a disenfranchised insurgent army. And a general approach of focusing on the minutae (such as a traffic code and patent law), when basic needs for safety, electricity, food and water had not been met, was greeted with understandable incredulity from the Iraqis.

I'm not sure how you go about making this book into an action movie with Matt Damon, but I'll let you know once I have seen it.

4.5 stars.