Imperial Life in the Emerald City

August 7, 2006
As the Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post
, Chandrasekaran has probably spent more time in U.S.-occupied Iraq than any other American journalist, and his intimate perspective permeates this history of the Coalition Provisional Authority headquartered in the Green Zone around Saddam Hussein's former palace. He presents the tenure of presidential viceroy L. Paul Bremer between May 2003 and June 2004 as an all-too-avoidable disaster, in which an occupational administration selected primarily for its loyalty to the Bush administration routinely ignored the reality of local conditions until, as one ex-staffer puts it, "everything blew up in our faces." Chandrasekaran unstintingly depicts the stubborn cluelessness of many Americans in the Green Zone—like the army general who says children terrified by nighttime helicopters should appreciate "the sound of freedom." But he sympathetically portrays others trying their best to cut through the red tape and institute genuine reforms. He also has a sharp eye for details, from casual sex in abandoned offices to stray cats adopted by staffers, which enable both advocates and critics of the occupation to understand the emotional toll of its circuslike atmosphere. Thanks to these personal touches, the account of the CPA's failures never feels heavy-handed.

October 15, 2006
It is now more than three years since American and so-called coalition forces launched the invasion of Iraq. Despite the immediate military success, the U.S. remains mired in the swamp--afraid of the consequnces of leaving yet unable to shape an acceptable reality while staying. Given the fissures in Iraqi society that our intervention revealed, perhaps the current state of violent chaos was inevitable. However, Chandrasekaran, an assistant managing editor of the " Washington" " Post" and the former " Post "bureau chief in Baghdad, maintains that shocking American arrogance and blundering during the first year of the American occupation virtually destroyed any hope of a "successful" occupation. The Green Zone was the headquarters for the American occupation in Baghdad, but like the inhabitants of the Emerald City of Oz, the Americans entrusted with the task of rebuilding and transforming Iraq lived in an isolated fantasy world divorced from the reality outside their walled compounds. This is perhaps a one-sided account, but it is still a devastating indictment of the post-invasion failures of the Bush administration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)