The national editor of The Washington Post addressed the Madison community Wednesday for the annual Nafziger Lecture.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of the best-selling book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” gave accounts of substandard American efforts to rebuild Iraq.
James Baughman, director of UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, introduced Chandrasekaran as “a witness to the carnage visited upon Iraq,” having spent 17 months there after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
Chandrasekaran said the purpose of his speech was not to address whether the United States should have invaded Iraq. Rather he said after April 9, 2003, the day Saddam Hussein’s statue was torn down, “we Americans had a strategic and moral obligation to help get Iraq back up on its feet.”
“I thought we could pull it off in Iraq,” Chandrasekaran said. “By pull it off, I mean something in the middle––a stable democracy on Iraqi terms with a functioning economy and modest reconstruction.”
He said he had hoped for this stability on his return to Baghdad, the day after Iraqi men pulled down the statue of Hussein.
“When I returned to Baghdad … I found a city––in fact, I found a whole nation on the throws of chaos.”
He said he remained hopeful during the early months of the rebuilding process, that American leaders would “do the right things––that they’d share meaningful governing authority with the Iraqis, that they’d assemble the necessary resources for the reconstruction of the country and that most importantly, they’d be pragmatic.
“We all know that didn’t happen.”
He referenced the people hired to work for Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority from April 2003 to June 2004, Baghdad’s Green Zone which American’s occupied and the policies administered to Iraqis as reasons American’s occupation of Iraq was flawed.
“What happens when American troops draw down from Baghdad next summer?” Chandrasekaran asked.
He mentioned a proposed “Plan B” among Iraqis for provinces with authority over budgets, local security forces, laws and how to be governed in a way that would decentralize the current government.
“This has slightly a more marginal chance for success,” Chandrasekaran said, adding American tactics would have to shift immediately.
“I thought it was really great,” UW-Madison senior Melissa Burchell said of the speech. “I’ve kind of fallen behind in keeping up with Iraq––it was really great to hear somebody that’s had firsthand experience.”
