No Smoking in the Green Zone
There have been a bunch of books about the mistakes made after the American invasion of Baghdad, George Packer's Assassin's Gate and Thomas Ricks' Fiasco being the two best in my opinion.
Yesterday, the Washington Post published an excerpt from Rajiv Chandrasekaran's effort. He was their bureau chief there for a few years and his book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, will be released tomorrow.
I haven't read the book, but the excerpt is as damning as anything could be. It outlines how people were recruited to serve in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the group that ran Iraq right after the invasion. Instead of qualifications in Arabic or post-conflict experience or anything, Chandrasekaran reports that the key item on anyone's resume was ties to the Republican Party.
One little bit in the piece explains something that baffled me at the time. Here's the quote about James K. Haveman Jr., who was put in charge of Iraq's health care system:
Haveman arrived in Iraq with his own priorities. He liked to talk about the number of hospitals that had reopened since the war and the pay raises that had been given to doctors instead of the still-decrepit conditions inside the hospitals or the fact that many physicians were leaving for safer, better paying jobs outside Iraq. He approached problems the way a health care administrator in America would: He focused on preventive measures to reduce the need for hospital treatment.
He urged the Health Ministry to mount an anti-smoking campaign, and he assigned an American from the CPA team -- who turned out to be a closet smoker himself -- to lead the public education effort. Several members of Haveman's staff noted wryly that Iraqis faced far greater dangers in their daily lives than tobacco. The CPA's limited resources, they argued, would be better used raising awareness about how to prevent childhood diarrhea and other fatal maladies.
Iraqis smoke. I have no idea what the percentage is countrywide, but the idea of a no-smoking area hasn't really penetrated. The convention center in the Green Zone (where the new Iraqi parliament meets) is one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen, a massive concrete structure that looks like a fortress. For years after the invasion, the building was a no-smoking zone. Uptight Americans would reprimand everyone who lit up, including Iraqi political leaders. A group of Iraqi politicians and aides would gather and look guiltily around until they hit a crucial number -- maybe 15 or so -- then everyone would light up at once. It was a weird sight. And then some American would tell them to put it out. Now, this is in the building that is the center of the new Iraqi government and the politicians were told by low-level hacks to not smoke. And, of course, the smoking area outside occasionally got hit by mortars.
I am happy to report though, that the new government has now installed ashtrays in the convention center and parliamentarians can now smoke in peace, and maybe try to grapple with some real issues.
Green Zone Smoking: Haveman
Mr. Haveman disputes Mr. Chandrasekaran's representations. In fact, Chandrasekaran's report is riddled with inaccuracies. The Washington Post has refused to print even a brief letter to the editor to correct the errors. The facts are available here.
Green Zone Smoking: Turkey Bacon
Full disclosure -- 19 months in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, DOD and then DOS civilian and yes a Republican (but I am in my 40s, not one of the kids they sent over). Rajiv makes some valid points, but a few cheap shots also. The Green Zone as a "suburban subdivision" is ridiculous. In the Post article he complains that a list of employees was never made public -- he should know that for the many Arab Americans working for CPA, that would be a target list for the terrorists to use, none of us Arab or not wanted to be on a convenient list like that. But he does make valid points like the pork in the chow hall -- think of Americans lining up for horse meat and lamb brains (literally). They did switch to turkey bacon later.
Green Zone Smoking: Hack
I don't know about the anti-smoking campaign, but the book is an obvious hit piece by an agenda journalist. I refer you to this post on the Powerlineblog.
If you can't get the important details about qualifications and accomplishments right, then perhaps your conclusion is wrong. The reporter is a hack.
Idiocy's Bipartisan
Just so you'll know this idiocy's bipartisan: when NATO discovered its humanitarian airlifts to war-driven Bosnia were bringing-- among other requested items -- cigarettes, it abruptly put an end to all humanitarian flights. I could not make that up. The source was the Tobacco Merchant Association Bulletin 5/10/96.
Green Zone Smoking: Letter To Editor
The "fan of absurdity" in Iraq was hit by the antismoking lobby a long time ago.
Back in January of 2005 a news article prompted the following "letter to the editor" from me. It was not published.
A Modest Proposal...
Dear Editor,
Councilman Clark justified his desire to boot smoking veterans out into the cold (in Vermont) by saying "This seems like a good way to honor our veterans, to prolong their lives."
The Councilman would probably agree with the Lung Association's spokesman, Joel Africk, who urged people not to send smokes to soldiers in Iraq even if those soldiers asked for them, saying "Tobacco use presents an immediate and real danger for our soldiers who are on the lines today... our troops should be sent care packages that dont kill."
I suggest that Mssrs. Clark and Africk should spend some time with these fighting men personally, and discuss these issues of honor and danger with them as they stand in the snow outside their veterans halls and huddle in trenches in Fallujah. I'm sure they'd find the discussions most enlightening and all Americans would benefit.
Sincerely,
Michael J. McFadden
Green Zone Smoking: No Smoking Laws
"For years after the invasion, the building was a no-smoking zone. Uptight Americans would reprimand everyone who lit up, including Iraqi political leaders."
When no-smoking laws are proposed in Washington State, where I live, the bar and restaurant owners are always backed in opposing such laws by the conservatives in the Republican Party, who go on at length about individual freedom and the nanny state. This seems to be the situation in other states as well. In the Green Zone, it appears, the anti-smoking scolds are all true-believer Republicans.
This seeming ideological contradiction is puzzling me. Ideological purity on smoking is in itself unimportant, but it seems like nagging the Iraqis about smoking would risk a loss of both focus and good will. Since Im in blue-country Seattle, I don't know very many people I can ask about it. So to any Republicans reading this, can you tell me what happened here? I have to say that in this as in a few other things the administration is making conservatives look like loons.
Green Zone Smoking: Anyone Can Write A Book
Most any one can write a book about "mistakes made after the American invasion of Baghdad" but "the man" George H. W. Bush got roasted for not going all the way when he was President. Today he looks smarter than any one gave him credit for back in the 1990s. But look on the bright side, Iraq, like Vietnam, will never attack the USA!
Green Zone Smoking: Hitting The Fan
I was wondering when all this anti-smoking P.C.B.S. would finally hit the fan of absurdity. Looks like ultimately what these do-gooder health nuts really want is for us all to live long, healthy, ironically miserable lives. Three cheers for the Iraqis not bothering with such trivial rubbish when the real health concerns in that country is death by rapid lead poisoning or sudden shrapnel syndrome. Amen.
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