Christian Isely, MS 03
Athens, Greece
Baghdad Dispatch #15
August 24, 2004
That's right. I am currently in Greece spending my first R&R and hitting the Olympics. I left Baghdad for Kuwait last Friday and arrived in Athens Saturday morning. Although I have been enjoying my work there, it is certainly good to take a break. Before I left, things were coming to a head with Sadr and the situation was getting tense. Now, it seems so far away although I will be back soon enough.
Presently, I am visiting close friends from my graduate school days at Carnegie Mellon. It is a great joy to relate to good friends in person the adventures I have been having. One of my friends, Alejandro, just arrived from Kabul where he is working with the UN to reestablish the customs services. There are vast differences between our work and the respective situations but there are also tremendous similarities! For instance, both operations face the challenge of dealing with multiple stakeholders and competing claims of interest. Additionally, we also both face the fact of dealing with governments that are very limited in their control of their respective countries. It also seems that the creation of the both governments is a similar process. In Afghanistan, they held the Loya Jirga. In Iraq, we recently held the National Conference. Both bodies were made up of a large number of representatives from throughout the country and both were responsible for providing legitimacy to the present government. Both governments face the challenge of insurgents and armed groups unwilling to take part in the political process. Although Iraq has dominated the news for the last year, we cannot forget Afghanistan. Failure there will have consequences for Iraq and likewise the other way round.
In other news, my close friend, Ryan, from Washington DC, just got a job with the State Department in Iraq. He will be working with the Iraqi Reconstruction Management Office (this organization also falls under the US Embassy and will be involved with the Project and Contracting Office in coordinating the reconstruction effort. I am very much looking forward to getting another perspective on the challenges we face and I know that Ryan will prove to be a valuable asset in this effort. It is also great to have a good friend in country!
Since I am currently taking a break in Greece, my mind is more focused here and although the purposes of my letters is to explore and relate the situation in Iraq, I want to describe an experience yesterday that is linked and is very revealing about the US and where we are in the world today.
Last night, I attended some of the Track and Field competitions at the massive Olympic stadium. The stadium was packed with people. Although most everyone was Greek, there were also tremendous numbers of Brits and Germans. The group that was noticeably lacking in numbers was the USA. This became extremely apparent when we swept the 400 meter male race by winning the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals! After the race, my friend Todd (also a grad school friend) and I shouted "USA!USA!" as loud as we could in support of our athletes. There were hardly any American flags waving and we were two of the few people celebrating. Later, during the medal ceremony, we waved our American flags and shouted out. A few other Americans joined us. When the national anthem was played, hardly anyone was around to sing. This contrasted sharply with the British celebration just moments before for their gold medal. Clearly, few Americans made it to the Olympics. For our numbers and our wealth, only a handful made it to see and support our athletes. What does this mean? Was it fear that kept us at home? Or disinterest? What was everyone else thinking when we were largely absent and our medal winners triumphed to few cries of their countrymen?
It is indeed a very fascinating time to be alive and amazing to take part in these events and to experience what I am experiencing.
As a country, where are we going?
Christian