WAR AFTER THE WAR
by GEORGE PACKER
What Washington doesn't see in Iraq.
With the old order overthrown, the Baath Party authorities purged, and the ministries stripped bare by looters, most Iraqis don't know where to take their grievances and petitions, where to unload the burden of their personal histories. So, like supplicants to the Caliph of ancient Baghdad, they bring them directly to the front gate of the occupation. But few Iraqis have the credentials to enter the Green Zone, and there are few, if any, interpreters at the gate. The Iraqis stand on one side of coils of concertina wire, gesturing and trying to explain why they must get in; on the other side stand American soldiers in body armor, doing twelve-hour shifts of checkpoint duty, keeping them out.
One day in July, a tiny woman in a salmon-colored veil stepped out of the crowd and thrust a handwritten letter at me. She was a schoolteacher, about thirty, with glasses and thick white face powder and an expression so pointedly solemn that she might have been a mime performing grief. Her letter, which was eighteen pages long, requested an audience with "Mister respectable, merciful American ambassador Pawal Bramar." It contained a great deal of detailed advice on the need to arm the Iraqi people so that they could help fight against the guerrilla resistance. The teacher, who was well under five feet tall, wanted permission to carry an AK-47 and work alongside American soldiers against "the beasts" who were trying to restore Saddam or bring Iranian-style oppression. She had drawn up a fake gun permit to illustrate her desire. She was having trouble sleeping, she said, and had all but stopped eating.
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi
...
"Iranians have suffered a lot because of him and mass graves in Iraq prove the crimes he has committed against the Iraqi people. The... arrest of a criminal has made me very happy."
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of Iraq's interim Governing Council
...
"This is a big blow to terrorists in Iraq. It is a great day for humanity and the Iraqi people."
Iraqi interim Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari
"This will be a turning point in the history of Iraq. It will help stabilise the situation and help the Iraqis to look forward to the future after this nightmare."
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