Maclean's Review FOM

FATHER OF MONEY: BUYING PEACE IN BAGHDAD
by Jason Whiteley (REVIEW BY BRIAN BETHUNE)

 

Almost from the moment it began in 2003, the American led invasion of Iraq has spawned a flood of books on its causes and its course, but few have been as enlightening as this one. In March 2004, then- U.S. Army captain Whiteley was appointed governance officer for al-Dora, one of the most volatile districts in the violent Iraqi capital. His job was to establish and foster a local Iraqi-staffed council, one of the dozens expected to become the seeds that would blossom into functioning institutions in a self-governing state. The key problem facing Whiteley was that he represented one of the most hidebound bureaucracies (the Pentagon) ever known in a district with an imminent need for money and jobs, in a culture that functions by personal word of honour and exchange of favours, legal or otherwise.

Whiteley thought he got the message. Two months into his year-long posting, and finding his council was fast losing authority, unable to tap into any of the quasi-legal economic opportunities in its neighbourhood, he led a convoy of three Humvees of troops to a local scrapyard. There, his men seized a dozen drivers about to take a load of shattered Iraqi military equipment off to Turkey, while Whiteley personally tasered the foreman. When the boss arrived, Whiteley hit him up for an ongoing “tax” of $20,000 per shipment (payable to the council). Thus began Whiteley’s brief career as a player in the Iraqi system: known as “Abu Floos” (Father of Money), the captain was considered a man who kept his word and got things done.

It was exhilarating, Whiteley writes, but also a moral swamp. His quick fixes inevitably alienated one group or another, especially in the face of the larger American failure to establish basic order. When he returned stateside at the end of his tour, it was with  the same feeling of personal failure and the same desire to leave it all behind that seems to mark the entire occupation. 

(Click here to buy Father of Money)

Couple Thoughts on Riots and Iraqis

It has been a busy few weeks. I moved from London to Washington DC, Father of Money debuted on kindle, London burned, and Baghdad blew up. A couple observations.

1. The fact that riots occur among a wide swath of London disprove everything ever written about COIN.  You will not find an environment where there is more social support, policing capacity, etc, than London, and yet the insurgents looters still held sway for the better part of three days.  I guess we should direct more aid dollars their way, or maybe we finally have an AfPak endstate: when Islamabad looks like London the fight will be over (insert joke here, about how London already looks like a South Asian capital)

2. The Iraq bombings prove, yet again, that Iraq is well on its way to a military dictatorship.  You heard from me first, in this 2004 interview, Iraqis will accept the yoke if it means they will stop dying in markets.  This Ramadan, the blood-letting is about keeping people on edge enough to be happy when the new leader comes to power (and strips them of any ideas of liberty).