From my personal experiences of living in Iraq for three years, I have concluded America's leadership is solely responsible for the entire country of Iraq becoming a living hell of suffering, poverty, starvation and depravation, unimaginable to either Iraqi or U.S. citizen just prior to our arrival in Iraq in 2003.
I personally attended and participated in many high level Coalition, State Department and DoD meetings and briefings in Iraq from 2003 until late 2006.
I remember being astounded, on many occasions, about the way we addressed the needs and requirements of the Iraqi people and their government. On one occasion after another, where the decision makers in Iraq had glowing opportunities to move Iraq in the right direction, the smallest suggestion that action being considered might be politically incorrect could, and often did, derail any further talk or action and everyone would be back to square one. More than not, it was the Military planners in the Embassy who would stop any worthwhile State Department initiative.
It seemed to me that the leadership in the Embassy in Baghdad were very unaware, almost detached, from what the average U.S. Soldier was experiencing on a day to day basis outside of Baghdad's green zone where life was actually pretty close to just being normal. Although the senior officers in the Embassy would, from time to time, fly out to the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), their arrival and departure was always very scheduled and planned. Very rarely would any of these officers actually go outside of a FOB where the troops were going everyday amongst the Iraqi general population.
Let me be very clear here. No act of courage, sacrifice, bravery, or selflessness is ever wasted, or for nothing, irregardless of when or where it happens. Our soldiers are carrying out their duty as they took an oath to do. You will not find any soldiers in Iraq who are not faithful and dedicated to their Commanders and to each other. Risking their lives for each other is a daily event for our soldiers in Iraq. This is as it should be. The senior officers however seemed to me to be somewhat different in that regard. Their future in the military and their promotion potential seemed to be factored into just about every decision. The real exception was the National Guard and Reserve component Senior officers who seemed always determined to get their soldiers what they needed and to be there for their soldiers. This is not to denigrate the Officer Corp, but it is what I noted during my extensive time in Iraq.
Donald Rumsfeld and General Casey seemed obsessed with ensuring The State Department (Condi Rice) did not get a firm foothold onto the leadership or management of the Iraq development planning, and that included the diplomatic part of the mission. From my perspective, the U.S. Ambassador was a figure head who simply did what General Casey and Don Rumsfeld decided needed to be accomplished by the State Department.
The Generals had all the money, they had the President's ear and they controlled almost all the resources. They still do. The golden rule; He who has the gold, makes the rules. State Department diplomatic efforts, or operational plans were seemingly a nuisance to the Military planners in the Embassy.
This was very in evidence right into the later part of 2006. Recently I spoke to a Diplomat friend of mine in the Embassy in Baghdad who told me he would be leaving Iraq as a direct result of the way the Military has totally ignored the diplomats in Iraq and the Military leaders conduct in pushing the "Baghdad surge" now in place.
Why shouldn't the Generals ignore the State Department? The President is squarely on the side of blunt force. Diplomacy to our President, apparently, is a tool for the weak. America has a long history of civilians controlling our military. In Iraq the U.S. military has no civilian control. The U.S. Ambassador is toothless.
The Military Commanders throughout Iraq were very suspect of any Department of State program where the military was not in primary control and would often, quickly and openly, moved to derail it. The most visible example of this type of stonewalling is the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). The PRT is a State Department Program developed for the purpose of assisting the Provisional Governments, in the 14 Provinces of Iraq, in Government Capacity Building, Rule of Law, City planning, Contracting, taxing, revenue sharing, and other aspects of Governmental Services Delivery and maintenance.
I was a key player in the initiation of the PRT in Iraq during 2005 and 2006. My exposure was all encompassing and I personally traveled throughout the Provinces of Iraq to conduct the initial PRT surveys for the State Department. The PRTs were overseen and managed through an office in the Baghdad Embassy called the National Coordination Team (NCT). I was a member of the NCT.
Almost all of the planning and execution aspects of the PRT development was conducted without the smallest participation of any Iraqis, governmental, or not. In some construction projects, in the provinces, the Iraqi Provincial Councils were allowed to communicate their desired projects to the State Department. In most cases, either the U.S. Corps of Engineers would decide what they wanted to do, or a Military General in the U.S. Embassy would decide what would be most advantages from the American Point of view. U.S. Contractors were big players here. The State Department had no real say-so at all in the selection of projects being conducted under the auspices of their own program. In 2006, the newly appointed civilian director of the NCT was a retired Army General. This appointment thereafter ensured the PRT compliance with the Military commanders in Iraq.
Many projects started by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers throughout Iraq, were never finished and many were simply de-scoped and made to appear complete when in fact they were not. Water plants and Electric plants in Iraq were built and never turned on. Iraqi Military bases were built under the auspices and direct supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who would complete the projects, only to standby and watch the Iraqis loot the newly built and furnished facilities to the bone. The U.S. Army Corps of engineers and the Program Contracting Office (PCO) themselves took a very large piece of the Iraq construction money; A very large piece. If it is ever investigated, I feel another scandal of waste, fraud and abuse will be in the headlines.
The Muslim Mosques, we built for the Iraqi Military, would usually remain intact. (We never built any Churches that I am aware of, although many Iraqis are of the Christian faith. Damaged or destroyed Churches remained rubble. For faiths other than Muslim, little or no money would ever be available for rebuilding or new development form the U.S. Government).
The Iraqi people and their government were worlds apart in their existence. The Iraqi government, almost in exile from it's people, is located in the extensively secured Baghdad Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. Military ensures their security. The Ministers live in the Green Zone and most of the representatives as well, in very comfortable circumstances. I am told that as of January 2007 almost one third of the elected officials in Iraq are actually living in foreign countries like Jordon, England, and France. Still collecting their pay, just not in Iraq.
The Iraqi population at large, with the exception of a few fearless and brave Iraqi politicians, never see their representatives, or even hear from them. Most Iraqi politicians are aligned with a Militia group who fight the U.S. on a daily basis, or are connected to the Shia Death squads that reign terror down on the Iraqi citizens every single day or their existence. An existence we created through very poor leadership, vision, planning or serious regard for the Iraqi population at large.
Just to get a glass of clean drinking water is a major effort in Iraq today, not to mention that many of those who are selling the clean water are also the same thugs, criminals and terrorist who are rampaging at night and profiting from the chaos by day. This after four years of U.S. Presence, over three thousand dead U.S. Soldiers, tens of thousands of U.S. Wounded and hundreds of Billions of U.S. Dollars. That is not even mentioning the hundreds of thousands Injured and killed Iraqi citizens, many who are children and women, and the millions displaced by the war and now living in abject poverty.
In Baghdad, should an injured Sunni Muslim show up to, or be brought to any government hospital in Baghdad, in all likely hood that person will not be alive the next day. Shia death squads, often members of the Iraqi Police, I am told visit the hospitals nightly looking for Sunni patients.
I believe the average American, or Iraqi citizen would be furious to know how President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Bremer and others caused the societal and institutional collapse of what was a fairly well running, civilized and organized institutional culture.
Their collective decisions facilitated the American and British contractors in bringing thousands of third world nationals into Iraq while excluding the poor and unemployed Iraqi citizens from even earning a living or participating in the reconstruction of their own country. Many of whom later turned to the insurgency to earn a living.
The exercise of blind leadership has brought America to the brink of irrelevance, the exception being where military power is concerned, in the world and in all other aspects an outcast of sorts. Albeit, a very powerful outcast.
Today the world of civilized societies who initially stepped forward with support and assistance, but later began to see the effort going far away from it's intended beginning, now see a U.S. President out of touch with reality.
Most of those countries are now hoping America does not suffer further from President Bush's continued presence in office. I am speaking of many countries who sent their own soldiers as well, although in very small numbers when compared to America and Great Briton.
Today I see a world of strong, democratic and free countries hoping and praying for America, their model, to once again find her bearing and lead the world in freedom, strength, integrity, as a force against those who would seek to derail mans progress into a future of liberty and justice for all. I believe they do want America to succeed for they know our downfall could well mean their own destruction.
When President Bush took office in 2000, America was a healthy, free, culturally expanding society whose reach and influence for good in the world was being embraced by friend and potential foe alike. During the preceding President Clinton years, the countries of the Middle East were looking to the U.S.A. to be the true and honest broker for peace. Israelis and Palestinians alike were beginning to believe that real peace could come to them after so many decades of war and suffering.
America had no debt to the world, after having been a debtor nation under the previous administrations of George Bush Sr. and President Ronald Reagan, President William Clinton was able to lead America out of debt and indeed left a surplus of over 250 Billion Dollars in the U.S. Treasury when he left office.
Now, under the leadership and authority of President George Bush Jr., America is between 8 and 10 Trillion dollars in debt to nations who do not consider us as real friends. Nations like China who holds over 1.3 Trillion Dollars of American Treasury Bonds. Bonds President Bush permitted them to buy. Consequently, we are broke, broken and groping for vision and leadership in America as the whole world watches the spectacle George Bush and the Republican Party has made of my country.
All of this our President continually blames on our tragedy of 9/11, Katrina and our failure to drill for oil in everyone's back yard from N.Y. to Alaska. For a while America bought it. We wanted to believe that we were heading in a direction that could bring peace and safety back to the U.S. and the world. We were attacked and we struck back, as we had every right to do. Suddenly we diverted our eyes from those who attacked us and focused on Iraq where most of our precious resources were diverted to. Those who attacked us on 9/11? Still at large in Afghanistan and Pakistan knowing the U.S. will not seek them out so long as they remain bogged down in Iraq.
The Hell we have created for the Iraqis? Out of our control now. It has evolved into a full fledged and unhealthy civil war between religious factions who both are more than willing to sacrifice their children, their women, their boys and girls in order to get the advantage over the other they seek. I feel, in the final analysis, the numbers of foreign fighters purported to be in Iraq will turn out to actually be far fewer than the administration would have wanted us to believe. I believe it is the Iraqis we are fighting and who are fighting us.
By dissolving the Army, Police force, civil institutions and governmental control and program entitlement ministries, Paul Bremer started Iraq on the road it walks today. His de-bathification program sealed the fate and future of Iraq in 2003 and, I believe, caused the insurgency to be born. When Paul Bremer returned to America, he was awarded the American Medal of Freedom by President Bush.
In the mean time, my youngest son, Sergeant Benjamin Adame will return to Iraq for his second tour next month. My second son, Staff Sergeant William Adame, was also scheduled to return soon, but has been delayed due to complications from the shrapnel wounds he received in Baqubah Iraq when his convoy was ambushed in 2006.
Thank God for small favors.
Today there is chaos in Iraq. When we leave, there will be chaos in Iraq for a time, but until we leave Iraq, the beginning of the end of chaos in Iraq cannot start.
The Author
Marshall Adame is a 2008 Democratic candidate for the US Congress in North Carolina.
In addition, today it was being reported that the DoD has been agitating for some time to reopen state-owned facilities. Finally one of its undersecretaries went ahead over State Department opposition, and started reopening the factories over the violent opposition of members of the administration and the State Department due to their philosophical opposition to state-owned enterprises. Can you address this issue also?
Thanks again for your fascinating accounts of your encounters with the system in Iraq.
I could address this at some lenth with some interesting historical perspective, but it is not easy to to this on a blog medea.
Educators fear, however, that the collapse in schooling will have some of the deepest repercussions for the country, leaving a generation with little education and little hope.http://news.yahoo.co..."Iraq's future is at risk," said Waleed Hussein, the spokesman for the Education Ministry. "Its children are prevented from getting educated just as the country is in dire need of moving forward."
And on the water situation:
BAGHDAD, 8 May 2007 (IRIN) - The River Tigris has long been a symbol of prosperity in Iraq but since the US-led invasion in 2003, this amazing watercourse has turned into a graveyard of bodies. In addition, the water level is decreasing as pollution increases, say environmentalists.http://www.alertnet....Pollution in the river is caused by oil derivatives and industrial waste as well as Iraqi and US military waste, they say.
You're right about the hell-on-earth:
Dead bodiesEvery day local police haul bodies from the Tigris bearing signs of torture. Locals who live near the river constantly see floating bodies.
The situation is even worse in Suwayrah, a southern area of the capital, where the government has built barriers with huge iron nets to trap plants and garbage dropped in the river but now this is also a barrier for bodies.
"Since January 2006 at least 800 bodies have been dragged from those iron nets, and this figure does not include those collected from the central section of the river. Most of the bodies are unidentified and buried without family claims," said Col Abdel-Waheed Azzam, a senior officer in the investigation department of the Ministry of Interior.
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From: TomDispatch < mailto:tomdispatch@n... >
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:13 PM
Subject: [TD] Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Ending the Empire
A project of the Nation Institute < http://www.nationins... >
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Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, ENDING THE EMPIRE
Way back in 1999, when I was still a Tomdispatch-less book editor, I read a proposal from Chalmers Johnson. He was, then, known mainly as a scholar of modern Japan, though years earlier I had read his brilliant book on Chinese peasant nationalism -- about a period in the 1940s when imperial Japan was carrying out its "3-all" campaigns (kill-all, burn-all, loot-all) in the northern Chinese countryside. The proposal, for a book to be called "Blowback" -- a CIA term of tradecraft that, like most Americans, I had never heard before -- focused on the "unintended consequences" of the Agency's covert activities abroad and the disasters they might someday bring down upon us. Johnson began with an introduction in which he reviewed, among other things, his experiences in the Vietnam War era when, as a professed Cold Warrior, a former CIA consultant, and a professor of Asian studies at Berkeley, he would have been on the other side of the political fence from me.
In that introduction, he recalled his dismay with antiwar activists who were, he felt (not incorrectly), often blindly romantic about Asian communism and hadn't bothered to do their homework on the subject. "They were," he wrote, "defining the Vietnamese Communists largely out of their own romantic desires to oppose Washington's policies." He added:
"As it turned out, however, they understood far better than I did the impulse of a Robert McNamara, a McGeorge Bundy, or a Walt Rostow. They grasped something essential about the nature of America's imperial role in the world that I had failed to perceive. In retrospect, I wish I had stood with the antiwar protest movement. For all its naïveté and unruliness, it was right and American policy wrong."
It was a reversal of sentiment to which no other American of his age and background, to the best of my knowledge, had admitted. It reflected a mind impressively willing to reconsider and change -- and, as it happened, it also reflected a man on a journey out of the world of Cold War anti-communism and into the heart of the American empire. When Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire finally came out in 2000, it was largely ignored (or derided) in the mainstream -- until, that is, September 11th, 2001. Then, "blowback," and the phrase that went with it, "unintended consequences," entered our language, thanks to Johnson, and the paperback of the book, now seen as prophetic, hit the 9/11 tables in bookstores across the United States, becoming a bestseller.
Johnson's intellectual odyssey had begun when the Cold War ended, when the Soviet Union disappeared and the American imperial structure of bases (and policy) in Asia remained standing, remarkably unchanged and unaffected by that seemingly world-shaking event. An invitation, five years later, to visit the heavily American-garrisoned Japanese island of Okinawa, in turmoil over a case in which two U.S. Marines and a sailor had raped a 12 year-old Okinawan girl, also strongly affected his thinking. There, Johnson saw firsthand what our global baseworld looked like and what it did to others on this planet. ("I was flabbergasted by the 37 American military bases I found on an island smaller than Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands and the enormous pressures it put on the population there? As I began to study it, though, I discovered that Okinawa was not exceptional. It was the norm. It was what you find in all of the Amer! ican military enclaves around the world.")
Now, five and a half years after the 9/11 attacks, Johnson has reached the provisional end of his quest and the single prophetic volume, Blowback, has become "The Blowback Trilogy." In 2004, a second volume, The Sorrows of Empire, arrived, focused on how the American military had garrisoned the globe and how militarism had us in its grip; and finally, this year, a magisterial third and final volume, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, appeared. No one should miss it. It lays out in chilling detail the ways in which imperial overstretch imperils the American republic and what's left of our democratic system as well as the American economy.
Now, in a step beyond even his latest book, Johnson considers whether we can end our empire before it ends us. Tom
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