I first became acquainted with the work of Peter van Buren when I read Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent about six months ago. It is a devastating portrait of the impact of globalization and deindustrialization on one small town in the Ohio River valley. I gave the book my special “6-star, plus” rating, only the third one of some 1500 reviews. I also immediately ordered this book, on Van Buren’s year in Iraq, feeling he would also have something incisive to say, and he does. Overall, I’ve read several other books on America’s involvement in Iraq, from Thomas Rick’s aptly named Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 to Rajiv Chandrasekran’s Imperial Life in The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. Van Buren’s work is set several years later than these other works, covering his one year in Iraq, in 2009. Things have gotten no better. Self-delusion has become even more finally honed.
Van Buren was a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), with the State Department, with an emphasis on the past tense, since as the Boston globe noted, this is a “burn-his-bridges” book. The author notes that there are more people in American military bands than FSOs. Motivated by both the carrot and the stick, he went to Iraq, purported to “win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people” as the sub-title states, with all the doomed implications that phrase conveys from the Vietnam War. He would spend the year as part of an “embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team” (ePRT) at two FOBs (Forward Operating Basis), Hammer and Falcon. It was (sorta) “life in the field,” without the glitz, glamor, or flush toilets that were in the Emerald City. Ah, but they brought in the “Third World Nationals” to do the dirty work.
How could the United States spend $63 billion on “nation building,” far more than was spent on the Marshall Plan (on an inflation adjusted basis) to get war-devastated Germany and Japan back on their feet, with so little to show for it? Van Buren explains. There seemed to be a willful effort to “forget about the basics,” that is, ensuring that the Iraqi people had safe drinking water, functioning 24-hour a day electricity, proper sewage and garbage removal, and day-to-day security. Instead, a library of American classics was provided, in Arabic translation, and was promptly dumped behind a school. Schemes to improve milk production, keep bees, and hold art shows were conducted. All good ideas, in isolation, and might work if the basics were in place, but they never were. A women’s health clinic was started, certainly a great idea, but then it closed down after six months as the “hot idea of the day” in the Emerald City moved on to something else, and follow-up funding was not provided.
The chapter that received my most marks of emphasis in the margins is “Economic Conference Blues.” Van Buren leaves the relative sanity of his FOB for the never-never land of unreality in the Emerald City were the Embassy’s “grass is always greener.” I see him sitting in the back of the room, trying not to scream, and jotting down “sanity-preserving” observations: “…people who incestuously briefed one another- all of the facts, none of the understanding, the big picture, our ‘legacy.’ The new adjective of choice was ‘robust.’” “Will plan webinars and roundtable discussions, maybe a blog, oh yes, a blog is modern, get an intern on it, they know this online stuff.” “Task one: Suspend disbelief, rewire your brain, accept that people at the Embassy who never stray outside the Green Zone tell you about Iraq, the place you live 24/7.” Van Buren describes how a new briefer, just in from Washington, commits (career) suicide on stage by telling the truth about what is really occurring, providing a handy formula: “Corruption= Monopoly + Discretion – Accountability.” Ain’t that the truth?
I am currently watching Ken Burn’s new series on the The Vietnam War: A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Season 1, and I believe it is an essential accompaniment for this book, with the core takeaway being one that Karl Marx, of all people, first proposed, concerning Louis Napoleon: “Hegel says somewhere that that great historical facts and personages recur twice. He forgot to add: ‘Once as tragedy, and again as farce.’” So, so many mistakes that America made in Southeast Asia were repeated, two generations later, in Southwest Asia, “as farce”. Not exactly the way to get over “the Vietnam syndrome,” as Bush 41 proclaimed we had done.
I had a problem with Van Buren’s title. No doubt, a few did try, and try hard, but most merely ignored and even suppressed the reality in front of them, in order to successfully have their “career card” stamped: “a good player.” And I definitely have a problem with Van Buren’s assessment that Michael Herr’s Dispatches: “remains the best book ever written about the personal experience of being at war.”
Despite the above reservations, I still consider Van Buren’s account an essential 5-star, plus read.
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Iraq...The Legacy
I saw the book title while reviewing news, weather and sports on my Kindle. As such, a few comments now..and many more as I progress through the book.GARDEZ PRT, Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan/2003The first PRT (February of 2003) in Afghanistan was the then called Fire Base Gardez, initially grouped together were 5th SFG Soldiers, Civil Affairs unit comprising of those from upstate New York and South Texas and a US State Department representative (Thomas P)..I came in early March as the USAID Field Program Officer.Follow on quickly were PRT's in Bamyan (where the giant sized Buddhas were until the Taliban destroyed them) and Kandahar. Over a period of years, the numbers of PRT's grew.With the invasion of Iraq in mid-March of 2003, the "resources" of the PRT at Gardez began to diminish.USAID is not a direct funding entity, but rather contracts with NGO's, IO's and other companies, like Louis Berger (at that time the singular contractor for infrastructure development in Afghanistan) as an implementer. As such, the word "contractor" may imply to one of those organizations. The "contractor" designation became more prominent (in a perhaps negative implication) as security firms were added to the contractor designation in Iraq.The United Nations did not support the PRT initiative (at least when I was there), because the UN mission initiatives are normally after a conflict..not during (although, during the war in Bosnia, the UN had a significant presence). Because there was no security..there were few, if any NGO's or IO's operating freely in SE Afghanistan. The killing of the ICRC field representative in February of 2003 cast a security shadow over SE AfghanistanI suspect the perception of "success" of the PRT program in Afghanistan led to the implementation of those PRT's in Iraq. I was asked about moving to Iraq..but, after my experience within USAID (a State Department asset), I declined (added to the mission was the fact that after six months, USAID could only offer six (6) days of leave).Let me close for the moment to say, many fine and dedicated people (emphasis added) worked both the PRT's in Afghanistan or Iraq. But, many after only a short amount of time became to realize that the pace of reconstruction and development...and success will never materialize at least to the expectations....so they just did their time, collected the pay and went back to the States.Like Tom Ricks who wrote Fiasco..Peter's view is from the ground truth level...the implementation metric of the Bush era promise to "win the hearts of minds" of the Iraqi people..which really should of been.."buying..or attempting to buy the hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people.From program to grow wheat in Al Anbar Province to other absolutely ridiculous hearts and minds programs resulted in billions (lost)..Peter does an excellent job of explaining an attempt to bring infrastructure development, employment, sustained peace through democracy..but, with little or no success. The Iraqi's just "bled" us financially..and that price will be paid for decades to come.Peter's inside perspective of the PRT..and as a State Department "lifer", he can readily look and reflect on issues that those of us on the "outside" cannot..I enjoyed the book..(in part sadly) in hopes my experience in the early days of USAID in Afghanistan wouldchange with successes in Iraq some six (6) years later. However, that was not to be.The infection of bureaucratic "BS" apparently became even more pronounced with in the PRT initiative as the years progressed.I only hope people will not forget who the leadership was during the war in Iraq...nor forget about the nearly 4469 men & women of the US military that lost their lives...and the other thousands now suffering with horrific life changing wounds. Their days in Iraq are not forgotten..for everytime they look down at lost limbs or scars..they remember...each and every day.Let us hope that the historical accounts of Iraq, especially from the hearts and minds perspective, as Peter so correctly defines is not lost.For many of us who have served in Iraq...we found the Bush 41 decided not to "invade" Iraq, per se because his adviser's indicated that doing so would result in "owning" the country. Yet, Bush 43 decided to totally invade Iraq based on weapons of mass destruction and the fact Iraq could attack the US in 45 minutes.And, Peter, if you read this....after my first day on the ground in SE Afghanistan/March of 2003, I secured a long gun and a pistol There was no way I would delegate my security to someone who would be more worried about his security at that moment than mine.Gardez PRT, Paktia, Afghanistan/2003 (Sudan, Nuna Mts./2002; Afgh/2003;Iraq/2005;Sudan, Juba/2007-08;Uganda/2010 (Balkans (Brcko/Posavina)96-97; Haiti/95
Top reviews from other countries
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- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2017
Amusing yet scary
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Funniest non fiction book about a holocaust I have ever read.
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When you suppress a people and their not happy about it!!
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Should be read by a large number of people.
