The "Green" Zone...

POST-POSTED for 20 JUL 2007

is rather inappropriately named, if you ask me.

since everything outside the international, or green, zone (iz) in downtown baghdad is termed the "red" zone, and since we received more than 35 rounds of incoming one day, i feel that the "aggressively orange" zone or the "painfully fuschia" zone would be more applicable labels. of course, those names could offer some emotional discomfort to the civilians, so perhaps green is for the best... i mean, there are some parts of iraq that are green, right? there are; i've seen them. why not too an urban isthmus bordered on three sides by the tigris, and four by strife? besides, the "raw sienna" and "burnt sienna" zones would perhaps be a bit melodramatic, and we need to save some original ideas for tehran.

oh, hey, by the way, in case you have yet to pick up on it, i went to the iz for a few days! "why?" you may very well ask, and, honestly, i don't rightly know... i was attending the rule of law conference hosted in the american embassy, and being neither state official, nor lawyer of civilian or military persuasion, nor coffee boy, nor sycophant, i was sorely out of place. well, okay, i've been a coffee boy. whatever.

the topic of discussion over the three days was basically: how can we (iraqis and coalition partners) turn this country around from a lawless insurgent state to a functional governance with fair and impartial application of the law to all parties?

i formed the very distinct impression that most of the earnest attendees were and are daily frustrated by holding the untenable position between two dysfunctional governments fractured by ideologies and partisanship, neither with any real interest in solving this conflict other than the platforming and grandstanding that it offers. [editor's query: has anyone else noticed that "support the troops" has become a punchline?] other than that, i watched a number of political entities self-massaging themselves, calling for more funding and so forth. i saw the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, General Petreaus (yet again), the President of the Iraqi Bar Association, and the Chief Justice of the Iraqi Supreme Court... it was all actually quite disheartening, and i left with somewhat dim prospects for the future.

the president of the bar association was the most distressing; the whole of his speech boiled down to a few brief talking points: 1) the US needs to stand up to it's responsibility to fix everything, 2) so that lawyers can live in prosperity. any concern for the general populace was overshadowed by the latter point. in fact, when an iraqi lawyer stood up and asked, rather pointedly i might add, what the bar association was doing to help him in his province, specifically in terms of getting the fledgling judicial system up and running, the president of the bar launched into a speech about lobbying for increased salaries. i was flabbergasted. we, the coalition partners, then proceeded to fawn over this fine fellow, proffering gifts and thanks for his "wisdom" of all things, and my flabbergast turned to disgust.

the whole idea behind what i'm doing here at the phoenix academy is getting the iraqis to stand up and take care of themselves, and it seems like at the highest levels many still have no desire to actually do that--are depending instead upon americans to do it for them. with such attitudes, we'll never be able to successfully withdraw, and the regular folk with whom i live and work and for whom i have developed a great sense of empathy and responsibility will be doomed to this substandard of living for decades to come. it's rarely those in a position to effect change that suffer the need--or suffer in general, really.

in all fairness, the chief justice was a much better speaker with a greater message, and the iraqi lawyers i met seemed to largely follow his lead rather than the bar president's; i can only hope they are not aberrational in doing so. the u.s. ambassador was probably the highlight of the keynote speakers, with a clear, cohesive message illustrated by relevant talking points; i'm pretty sure this was because of his background as an english major.

on the bright side, the food was excellent, at least compared to what i normally eat here, and every night i was able to go swimming in the palace pool, which is afffetionately termed the "mortar magnet". i figured i'd be safe enough. water's fantastic at attenuating kinetic energy in neutrons, so it must logically follow that it's good with shrapnel, too!