Iraq

President Bush recently vowed that the United States would succeed in turning Iraq from violence and chaos to democracy and peace. But in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, higher than expected troop presence in the country, and continued insurgent activity, what is the reality on the ground in Iraq?

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor for Foreign News, Phil Bennett, was online Tuesday, June 1 at Noon ET, to discuss his observations on visiting Iraq, Post coverage of news from Iraq and the issues making headlines leading up to the June 30th handover of power to an Iraqi entity.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Phil Bennett: Hello everyone. It's been an exceptionally eventful day in Baghdad that's inspired many questions already; I'll try to post as many of them as I can. A disclaimer: I'm not an expert on Iraq, though I know a few. They inhabit our Baghdad bureau, where, as foreign editor, I just spent four days discussing the shape and mission of our coverage, and seeing the place for myself as it is today. I flew out this morning and am typing from Amman, Jordan. So I may not be able to address some of queries with the authority and detail of our correspondents, but I'll try to channel them as best I can.

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Parkville, Md.: The first two men tapped to be the new Iraqi president turned the position down, and now we learn that the Iraqi governing council has just spontaneously disbanded itself, 30 days ahead of schedule.

I read this in one of two ways:
(1) Few people in Iraq now expect members of the U.S. appointed government to have any political future in a post-U.S. Iraq.

(2) Few people in Iraq now expect members of the U.S. appointed government to live very long.

Of course, both might be correct.

How do you read these latest developments?

Phil Bennett: The process that culminated today with the naming of the rest of the interim government went around a number turns that would have been hard to predict. Look back over the last month: the president of the governing council killed in a car bomb; a prominent member, Ahmed Chalabi,apparently disowned by his U.S. allies; one choice for prime minister rejected by the GC; and now this wrangling among the UN, US, and council that has produced Ayad Allawi as prime minister and Ghazi Yawar as the president. It's hard to see where that progression leads. One question is whether it is really the key to Iraq's future, however, or will other actors and events determine that.

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New York, N.Y.: The new prime minister lived outside of Iraq for the last 30 years, is known to be close to the CIA, and was picked by the Governing Council, which was widely seen as an American puppet. Can he possibly have any credibility among Iraqis?

Phil Bennett: There's little indication that any members of the governing council, including the new prime minister, enjoy broad popularity in Iraq. I was told that a recent poll taken by the U.S. occupation authority showed that the most popular figure in the country is Moqtada Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose followers are fighting U.S. forces.

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Washington, D.C.: In today's Post I've read that American soldiers may not only have been abusing detainees but also stealing from Iraqis' homes and assaulting them while out on patrol.

Do Iraqis complain of this sort of behavior to reporters? If so, how common does this sort of activity appear to be? Does this behavior alter Iraqis perception of the American armed forces?

washingtonpost.com: Army Investigates Wider Iraq Offenses, (Post, June 1)

Phil Bennett: The negative view of the occupation among Iraqis one meets is really striking; it's a pervasive and disturbing aspect of being in Baghdad. The perception seems much wider than the experience; that is, while our reporters have not found many specific complaints (and i think this morning's story cites a handful), the dark lessons that Iraqis draw from the reports seems resounding and universal. Another US conducted poll result I heard was that, in stark contrast to last August, a majority of Iraqis now say that the presence of US troops is the biggest source of the security problems in the country. In other words, they blame the U.S. for car bombs aimed at the U.S. presence.

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Alexandria, Va.: What is your reading on why this happened 30 days ahead of schedule? Is this an October surprise only in June?

Phil Bennett: I don't think that's such a big deal. The UN and others, including the council members, see an advantage in a transitional period before June 30, and an awkwardness to having two interim governments at the same time. The big question of course is what happens between June 30 and elections scheduled for early 2005.

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Raleigh, N.C.: During the lead up to the war, The Washington Post was unabashedly supporting the invasion: Extremely limited coverage of statements by the war's opponents and virtually no space given on the op-ed pages for people who questioned the wisdom of the invasion.

Now The Washington Post seems to have reverted back to a more even handed approach. Why the change?

Phil Bennett: This is one of several broader questions coming in. I dispute your premise as it relates to the news coverage that I oversee (the editorial board answers to a different calling, and can speak for its own opinions, and has). I think the foreign staff described accurately the conditions inside Iraq before, during and after the invasion, and continues to do so today without an agenda.

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Washington, D.C.: Were you concerned for you safety? How dangerous was it for you to move around?

Phil Bennett: I was in Baghdad only. For a foreigner, it's entering the looking glass. Even though I read this coverage everyday, I was surprised by the profound menace that accompanies almost every step across the city. Kidnappings and attacks on foreign civilians have driven almost everyone into a bunker, into armored vehicles, behind the wire. Of course this is potentially disastrous for our journalism. So we are searching for ways not to lose contact with the heart of the story -- still the Iraqi experience -- without risking the lives of our correspondents. But there's no glossing it over: it's extremely hazardous work.

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Kennesaw, Ga.: Good morning, Mr. Bennett. One of the underreported stories about Iraq concerns civilians working for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). From the reporting in The Post and other papers we know a lot about who American soldiers are and what they are doing in Iraq; we know far less about CPA civilian employees -- who they are, how they were selected, whether they have the skills needed for the work that needs to be done, how often they work with American troops outside the protected "Green Zone."

Is there anything you can tell us about what CPA employees do all day? What does The Post plan to do to improve its coverage of this important subject?

Phil Bennett: It's been very hard to get through the reserve and secrecy that surrounds much of the civilian contracting in Iraq, although we have done some good pieces on contractors and their work. Recently, many, many civilians working for the CPA have retreated into the Green Zone, which is the protected quadrant of Baghdad that includes Saddam Hussein's former palaces, because of security. This has been key because I get the sense that the number of genuine interactions between common Iraqis and American civilians is greatly reduced, if not next to nil. Still, someday somebody's going to write a great book about their experiences.

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Minot, N.D.: If Sadr is the folk hero of the day, and Yawer is their choice over Pachachi, why did we come to save the nation from themselves (as this administration claims) if what is established is the potential for another theocracy? Was either/or of the two favorites aligned with the Hussein administration? Thank you

Phil Bennett: I don't think the administration that the United States would save Iraq from the Iraqis, whatever other unfulfilled promises were made. As for a theocracy, it's interesting that the interim government has a very weak representation among clerics; it's a secular group. As for Sadr, he claims to represent dispossessed Shiites who were infamously persecuted by Saddam Hussein. His father, a revered cleric, was assassinated for opposing Hussein.

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Reston, Va.: Hello,

How is the feeling over there, do you think we will hear some good news for the next few months -- until the U.S. election? And is there any security by the U.S. for the new prime minister?

Thanks!

Phil Bennett: Everyone I talked to in Iraq believes things will get worse before they get better. The Bush administration has said as much with regards to security. How far will things deteriorate? Who knows? But a very unsettled and unsettling period is ahead, with no known horizon beyond the Jan 2005 elections. The insurgency has vowed to kill all of the ministers of the new government, so the prime minister's to do list will start with his own security.

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Moscow, Russia: Is this becoming another Vietnam, another Afghanistan?

Phil Bennett: You find yourself driving around Baghdad searching for an analogy; those ones certainly don't feel close. It's a puzzle of a particular kind, with pieces missing and others that don't fit. I'd like to know how much the current situation owes to issue of whether Americans understand Iraqis and Iraqis understand Americans. But that too seems an oversimplification. An American official told me yesterday: "my best hope is that the war might turn out better for Iraq than it will for the United States." We're going to be trying to figure this out for a long time.

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New York, N.Y.: A lot of us here in the States are very angry about how badly the media is covering Iraq. I know a lot of soldiers who are in Iraq now or who have recently returned, and I hardly ever read anything in The Post that is anything remotely like what they tell you. Apparantly, to you people, six stories a day are needed about Abu Ghraib, but you need hardly any about soldiers repairing water facilities, organizing elections, and the like? Why is it that we have to turn to alternative sources like opinion columnists to find out that, in the Shia province of Dhi Qar, a couple hundred miles southeast of Baghdad, 16 of the biggest 20 cities have elected councils? This should be front page news. But you ignore it completely.

I wonder if you have anything to say in response to this completely disgusted news consumer.

Phil Bennett: I don't see it as an either/or. We do write about some of the projects you describe; we had a front page story last week on sewer systems being put in Sadr City by the 1st Cavalry Division and its very enterprising commander, Gen. Chiarelli. But the truth is that military and civilian officials in Iraq will tell you that progress on these projects is a huge disappointment to them, far beyond schedule, and less effective than they had hoped. Members of the democratic councils are being assassinated. Around Baghdad many have disbanded; American civilians working with them have had to stay locked down because of security. This is what's happening. Do we miss stuff? You bet; reporters have been killed on their way to the area you describe. But I don't concede that it's because we're seeking to provide a partial view of the situation.

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Re: Kennesaw, Ga.: There was a good article in The Post last week or so about young people who had posted their resumes on the Heritage Foundation's web sites, and who were later contacted by the CPA to work in Iraq, many of whom did.

washingtonpost.com: In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime, (Post, May 23)

Phil Bennett: Thanks. It was by Ariana Cha.

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Arlington, Va.: Not to harass you, sir, but you're response to Raleigh's question about the Post's alleged pro-war stance seemed carefully limited to describing events inside Iraq. Without criticizing your colleagues or any publication, can you give your assessment of the U.S. press performance on the administraiton's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

Phil Bennett: I think it could have been more aggressive earlier; clearly it has prompted soul searching in newsrooms at major papers, as witnessed by The New York Times's note to readers last week. That said, Robert Kaiser of The Post has written an eloquent and I think persuasive account of this coverage for a recent issue of the New York Review of Books that you might want to check out.

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Detroit, Mich.: Are there any polls or ways to judge how the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal is causing Iraqis to view the U.S., its current occupation of Iraq, and how we are turning the government over to them?

Phil Bennett: I haven't seen any polls. But this goes to the earlier question/comment about whether media coverage of the scandal is excessive. You see graffitti and even a mural in Baghdad referring to the abuse used to rally insurgents against the U.S. At least part of the importance of the scandal is its impact on Iraqi public perception. Again, perception is a strategic force in a conflict like the one in Iraq.

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Phil Bennett: I'm sorry that we've run out of time, with scores of probing and provocative questions and comments that I haven't addressed. Apologies for slow typing and around the world Internet connection. Thank you to each who wrote. As an editor at The Post, I can't tell you how valuable your criticism, questions, ideas mean to our coverage and thinking about the world.

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