The Foreign Service Journal, March 2004

In his pioneering survey of Middle Eastern history, Caravan , Carleton Coon describes the region as a “mosaic” of peoples — a congeries of languages, ethnicities, and religions that extend back from the present nearly three mil- lennia. Such was the case in Iraq (the classical Mesopotamia), with its Shiite Muslim majority (perhaps 60 percent of the population), plus Sunni Muslims (about 20 percent), Kurds (around 15 percent), and smatterings of Turkomans and Christians. Of Baghdad’s Jewish community, whose ancestors had lived in Mesopotamia since the 6th century B.C., and who in modern times held leading roles in commerce, banking and medicine, fewer than a dozen remained. Lamentably, this Iraqi mosaic had been shattered well before Jerry Bremer assumed command of the CPA. Although the Sunni minority had already dominated Iraq for almost 400 years by the time the infamous Ba’th Party assumed full power in 1968, it was when Saddam Hussein seized absolute power in 1979, that Sunni rule took a truly Hitlerian turn. Power in the Middle East is traditionally accompanied by favoritism and abuse, but Iraq set new standards on both counts. Under Saddam these presump- tions were given steadily greater force by his total com- mand of the tools of modern technology and coercion. Accordingly, Jerry Bremer did not just have to put Humpty Dumpty together again. He has had to reassem- ble a myriad of ill-fitting, damaged, mutually antagonistic fragments into something resembling a working egg. Life at the CPA As representative of the chief occupying power, Jerry Bremer’s position under international law is like that of a chief of state. These days, the “letter of authority” that ambassadors receive from their presi- dent reads like the fine print on the back of an airline ticket. Bremer’s, however, resembles that which George Washington gave his ministers. Barely one page long, it essentially says, “You have my full confidence and support. Go out there, tell me what you need, and do your best for our country.” And in Bremer’s case these are not only words. He has held weekly teleconfer- ences with President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and frequently travels back to Washington to meet with the president, senior members of the adminis- tration and the Congress. His requests for resources have been promptly and generously met. Bremer and his British colleague soon had at their command a cadre of over a thousand American, British and Australian experts. Meals in the cavernous mess hall of the Republican Palace were opportunities for thumb- nail seminars. You might sit with the new head of Baghdad’s garbage disposal program— a dynamic sanita- tion engineer (and grandmother) from California — or a former dot-com millionaire who had decided doing pro- bono work would be more interesting than starting a new company. His job was to sort out winners from losers among Saddam’s state-owned enterprises. Or your lunch companion might be a U.S. Special Forces major with a scholar’s knowledge of the Qur’an and Iraq’s tribes, or a brilliant British intelligence agent, plus every sort of expert in power generation, community development and human rights. And on trips to regional centers, such as Hilleh (near Babylon), Kirkuk (in Kurdistan) or Ramadi (in the “Sunni Triangle”), you’d meet inspiring, coura- geous colleagues working closely with local Iraqis while facing danger every day. Our Kirkuk representative moved out of her house when it was attacked by rocket- propelled grenades. The U.S. base she moved into was itself attacked by mortars the next day. The atmosphere of the CPA was unique. “Morale” was high despite arduous living conditions. Baghdad proved that if good people are given first-class leadership, an important mission and sufficient resources, morale will take care of itself. All of these elements, and especially leadership, were abundantly present. True, living condi- F O C U S 30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 4 Hume Horan was an FSO from 1960 to 1998, serving as ambassador to Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Cote d’Ivoire, as well as deputy chief of mission in Jeddah and principal deputy assistant secre- tary in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. He is the author of To the Happy Few , a novel about terror and the Sudan (Electric City Press, 1996), and until May 2003, served as an analyst on Middle Eastern affairs for MSNBC, NPR, BBC, and Fox News. From May to November 2003, he was a senior adviser to Amb. Jerry Bremer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, where he dealt with religious and tribal issues. The Iraqi mosaic had been shattered long before Jerry Bremer assumed command of the CPA.