Naked In Baghdad

I'm going to try to post some reviews of the non-academic books I read, but as with the movie reviews, don't look for polished or particularly thoughtful accounts. I'm just going to put out some responces from the books.

With a bit of extra time, I took a long lunch and finished Naked In Baghdad by Anne Garrels, the NPR correspondant who stayed in Baghdad throughout the invasion (she was one of only 16 Americans who did). It really is a nice quick read. It’s definitely not an attempt to be an in depth analysis of the war which I appreciate right now. It’s mainly a personal journal of her life in and out of Iraq in the run-up and immediate aftermath of the fighting.

What I do like about the book is just that. It doesn’t get tangled up in the massive complexities that must have faced her as she tried to get things done. Possibly in order to protect her methods and the people that helped her, she does describe the issues she had in getting visas and negotiating (read: bribing) the bureaucracy, but only in a relatively vague way.

She deals with some of the individual stories she covered which is very interesting. It was very frustrating to read how dead-on many of the complaints were of the American forces from the beginning. Her stories show how the lack of post-war planning and policing after the battle of Baghdad was particularly effective in turning the population against the Americans. She interviews Iraqis who initially are very supportive of the Americans. Through a few conversations, she finds that, almost to a man, they transfer all their anger onto the soldiers and Marines who they see as in control but apathetic to their very immediate troubles.

Most vivid in this sense is Amer. He was basically her ‘fixer’ in Iraq. Part driver, part interpreter, part security, and who knows what else. He is intelligent, talented and able, and he makes it clear early on how much he loathes Saddam’s government. He seems like exactly the type of person that the Americans would be ecstatic to get to and work with in the reconstruction, but unfortunately, despite his very close relationship with Anne, an American, he learns to hate the American forces, perhaps even as much as he did Saddam’s. He even stops speaking to a relative who starts working with the American forces.

At the end, I just kept wondering why we didn’t do a better job when all of the clues seem so obvious to me know. I guess that’s how hindsight works.

It’s a good read if you’re looking for a very readable, but possibly a bit light return to the days of ‘what could have been.’