In the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone, former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, investigates the Green Zone, a sectioned off lavished city in Iraq where the United State authorities lived and worked. The book is centered on the failure of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) not achieving their goal of helping the postwar nation Iraq, due to not fixing crucial immediate needs. Chandrasekaran does a wonderful job of explaining how the CPA failed at its goal, exposed what “war on terror” really meant, and explained the nature of the American Empire. Chandrasekaran firmly believes the CPA did not achieve the goal of helping Iraq. The CPA was originally put into place by the Bush
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In the book, Iraq was believed to be getting a free economy and a free society, however, America had a different plan: to bring democracy to Iraq (130). War on terror was simply bringing the “American way” to Iraq. Although the war on terror was said to help, it was an excuse for the United States to do what it wanted with Iraq. At the time, the countries biggest concern was unemployment, with an estimated forty percent falling into that category. However, the USAID-Treasury document did nothing to change that (131). The book exposes the harsh truth that American did not want to “help” Iraq, but rather change it to fit American ideals and …show more content…
While explaining the Green Zone, it becomes very clear where American priorities are. Mark Schroeder described the Green Zone as “a little America” (18). It had a movie theater, yoga classes, dance lessons, a gym, shops, a swimming pool and even a hospital (15-20). An estimated $100 billion dollars was spent on the Green Zone, when America could have used that money smarter, to help Iraq. The Green Zone symbolized America’s corruption, pride, racketeering, and power. Not only were billions of dollars wasted on nothing, but the Green Zone also led to the death of thousands. After the Green Zone was renamed to the International Zone, it became “almost as dangerous as the city outside” (335). The Green Zone exemplified how Americans came into Iraq to help, but however, we built walls up to keep out the local population and to feel safer. It represented the American Empire; it stood for our power, our wealth, and our
In the book, Iraq was believed to be getting a free economy and a free society, however, America had a different plan: to bring democracy to Iraq (130). War on terror was simply bringing the “American way” to Iraq. Although the war on terror was said to help, it was an excuse for the United States to do what it wanted with Iraq. At the time, the countries biggest concern was unemployment, with an estimated forty percent falling into that category. However, the USAID-Treasury document did nothing to change that (131). The book exposes the harsh truth that American did not want to “help” Iraq, but rather change it to fit American ideals and …show more content…
While explaining the Green Zone, it becomes very clear where American priorities are. Mark Schroeder described the Green Zone as “a little America” (18). It had a movie theater, yoga classes, dance lessons, a gym, shops, a swimming pool and even a hospital (15-20). An estimated $100 billion dollars was spent on the Green Zone, when America could have used that money smarter, to help Iraq. The Green Zone symbolized America’s corruption, pride, racketeering, and power. Not only were billions of dollars wasted on nothing, but the Green Zone also led to the death of thousands. After the Green Zone was renamed to the International Zone, it became “almost as dangerous as the city outside” (335). The Green Zone exemplified how Americans came into Iraq to help, but however, we built walls up to keep out the local population and to feel safer. It represented the American Empire; it stood for our power, our wealth, and our