Iraq: A Federal Judge's Point of View, a must read

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Iraq: A Federal Judge's Point of View

 

 

PREFACE

Last Wednesday night, I attended a lecture by Judge Don Walters,

a federal judge from Shreveport, LA., who was asked to serve as

part of a 12 man team in Iraq to evaluate their justice .

It was most interesting, and afterwards, I asked if he had a

book or a recording of any of his lectures. Since he did not,

he was generous enough to give me his notes from the evening.

For those of you interested, I will give you a slightly abridged

version of his lecture which I found difficult to cut down due to

its wealth of information.

 

THE LECTURE:

 

I really am not into public speaking as I am sure you are about

to find out. But my adventures in Iraq taught me something that

I would very much like to share with you. I have been fortunate

over the past 5 or 6 years to get to such exotic places as Bosnia,

Jakarta, Indonesia, and Morocco. But, Iraq is my swan song. First,

I am too old for such adventures, and second, Charlotte (my wife)

won't let me. In mid-April, I got a call from DoJ asking if I

would be willing to go to Iraq for up to 3 months to evaluate the

justice and make recommendations. When I went home,

Charlotte said without a pause, "how could I possibly tell you, no?"

 

Let me begin with a disclaimer, I was in Iraq for fewer than 40 days,

I was in Baghdad for a little over three weeks and in the three

provinces of the far south for two weeks. I am limited in what I saw

and heard. Needless to say, the opinions are my own. I want to make

it clear that, initially, I vehemently opposed the war.

 

The team of 12 that went to Iraq was to access the judiciary and to

make recommendations for the future. We were sent too soon and without

sufficient planning and forethought. Accordingly we were forced to

play our part by ear. Ultimately, we were successful. No thanks to

the civil authorities in Washington or Iraq.

 

We were divided into 4 teams. We were the southern team: Mike Farhang,

an AUSA from Los Angeles, Harvard Summa Undergraduate, Harvard Law

Review, Linguist, 5 languages including Arabic; Rich Coughlin, Federal

Public Defender from New Jersey, who abandoned his wife and 23 month

old daughter to volunteer for this; and me. We were accompanied by an

interpreter and protected by what I called our "minders," four Iraqis

well-armed with 9mm hand guns and AK47's.

 

During the first two weeks, we talked to a few hundred Iraqis and

interviewed about 60 judges. Our help came from our Danish colleagues

and the First Armored Division (UK), not from the civil authorities -

OPCA, Office of the Provisional Coalition Authority,

(formerly ORHA), Ambassador Brenner's group.

 

Despite my initial opposition to the war, I am now convinced, whether

we find any weapons of mass destruction or prove Saddam sheltered and

financed terrorists, absolutely, we should have overthrown the Baathists,

indeed, we should have done it sooner.

 

What changed my mind?

 

When we left mid June, 57 mass graves had been found, one with the bodies

of 1200 children. There have been credible reports of murder, brutality

and torture of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens. There is

poverty on a monumental scale and fear on a larger one. That fear is

still palpable.

 

I have seen the machines and places of torture. I will tell you one story

told to me by the Chief of Pediatrics at the Medical College in Basra. It

was one of the most shocking to me, but I heard worse. One of Saddam's

security agents was sent to question a Shiite in his home. The

interrogation took place in the living room in the presence of the man's

wife, who held their three month old child. A question was asked and the

thug did not like the answer; he asked it again, same answer. He grabbed

the baby from its mother and plucked its eye out. And then repeated his

question. Worse things happened with the knowledge, indeed with the

participation, of Saddam, his family and the Baathist regime.

 

Thousands suffered while we were messing about with France and Russia and

Germany and the UN. Every one of them knew what was going on there, but

France and the UN were making millions administering the food for oil

program. We cannot, I know, remake the world, nor do I believe we should.

We cannot stamp out evil, I know. But this time we were morally right

and our economic and strategic interests were involved. I submit that just

because we can't do everything doesn't mean that we should do nothing.

 

We must have the moral courage to see this through, to do whatever it

takes to secure responsible government for the Iraqi people. Having

decided to topple Saddam, we cannot abandon those who trust us. I fear we

will quit as the horrors of war come into our living rooms. Look at the

stories you are getting from the media today. The steady drip, drip, drip

of bad news may destroy our will to fulfill the obligations we have assumed.

WE ARE NOT GETTING THE WHOLE TRUTH FROM THE NEWS MEDIA. The news you watch,

listen to and read is highly selective. Good news doesn't sell. 90% of the

damage you see on tv was caused by Iraqis, not by US. All the damage you

see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries,

pipelines and water supplies, as well as shops, museums, and semi-public

buildings (like hotels) was caused either by the Iraqi army in its death

throes or Iraqi civilians looting and rioting.

 

The day after the war was over, there was nearly 0 power being generated

in Iraq. 45 days later, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 MW is

up and running. Downed power lines are being repaired and were about 70%

complete when I left. There is water purification where little or none

existed before...this time to everyone. Oil is 95% of the Iraqi GNP. In

order for Iraq to survive, it must sell oil. All the damage to the oil

fields was done by the Iraqi army or looters. The 14 story office building

of the Southern Iraq Oil Company in Basra was torched by Baathist,

destroying all of the books, records and computers of the company. Today,

the refinery at Bayji is at 75% of capacity. The crude pipeline between

Kirkuk and Bayji has been repaired, though the Baathist keep trying to

disrupt it. If we are doing all this for the people, why are they shooting

us? The general population isn't. By my sample, 90% are glad we came and

the majority doesn't want us to leave for some time to come, but there are

still plenty of bad guys, the Baathists who lived well under Saddam. The

thugs of the old regime still hope to return to power, and there are plenty

of them, mostly located in Sunni areas. Then too, Saddam, in the Ramadan

amnesty, let every murderer, butcher, rapist and violent criminal loose on

his own people. There are interests, including organized crime, with a

desire for anarchy and profit. There are disruptive forces from Saudi Arabia,

Iran and Syria. We saw poverty on a scale that I have never witnessed except

in pictures of Haiti. I saw one little girl: she was slender, very pretty,

about 5 or 6 years old, in a tattered dress with a broad red hem, part of

which was torn and dragging in the dirt. She would touch her heart and make

hungry gestures. She was duplicated a thousand times during the journey.

The poverty in Iraq is a sharp contrast to the lives of Saddam and his sons.

Saddam alone, not counting Ouday and Qusay and the leading Baathists, had 43

palaces. We are using several for civilian government. The one where OPCA is

located is the main republican palace occupying over 2000 acres. It is a

monument to narcissism, four 25 foot tall heads of Saddam decorate the front

of the palace, and his portraits and statues are everywhere. We went to a

second palace by the airport. It is surrounded by a lake which was created by

diverting the Euphrates water which limited agricultural irrigation downstream.

His palace in Basra was used by him only once I am told. Basra functions fairly

well except for the power. There are 6 lines into the city, but it does not

have a standard power grid. Saddam used power and other essentials as a method

of punishing a city of 3 million! He would cut power for days to punish them.

When I tell you the temperatures there, you will understand how bad that was.

I am told that in high summer, it will hit 155 degrees, even 160! He has made

no investments in this area which is overwhelmingly Shiite. He has few friends

there. Consequently, it is easier for the Brits to govern, unlike Baghdad. And

they are doing a good job of it.They are doing it at the moment by using pre-

war personnel, perhaps contrary to Brenner's de-Baathification order. The

problem with Brenner's policy is that it removes almost all of the people who

ran the country. The Brits have been pragmatic: they have largely left the

judges and police in place and are removing them as they see the need and they

are able to train and replace the bad ones. That was our problem in Haiti, we

trained a police force but did not put the judiciary in place so that the jails

just filled up and then overcrowding forced criminals out. And the Haitian

police have largely quit. (Ouday had a solution to overcrowding, when he

received a complaint of overcrowding, he went to the prison and personally shot

every 3rd prisoner.) We want to keep Iraq a secular state, and that will present

some difficulties as there is no real concept of separation of church and state

in Islam. Attaturk was a true revolutionary where this was concerned. The tribal

and sahria (religious) courts are functioning, and if we don't get a move on,

they will replace the civil and criminal courts. I find it difficult to explain

how differently they think. I remember telling Mike, "I don't think we are on

the same page with this fellow." Mike said, "Don, I am not sure we are in the

same library." For a large percentage of the Iraqi people, and they are most

adamant, family and tribe are everything, religion and state are one and the

same. That they don't understand us is our biggest problem in the middle east.

They perceive our way of life as a threat to theirs,...and it is. They fear

the modern world is about to run over them, destroying family life as they know

it, educating and freeing their women, forbidding honor killing...coca colas,

jeans, lack of parental respect and respect for the old ways and religion. And

to defend their way of life and their religion, they will die with the same

fervor with which the Christians marched to the lions. In their fear of western

life, some will fight and kill us; but I remain convinced that the majority want

a secular society and the best that the west has to offer. We are not hated by

everyone. Of the hundreds I talked to, the overwhelming majority thanked us for

being there. Hundreds of adults and children on the roads waved and smiled as

we passed by. We went to the law school with about 300 students, about ten of

whom were female. There we were, three Americans and they wanted us to fix

their school and they thought we could. They thought Americans could do anything.

They were like children expecting the genie from the bottle to immediately

gratify their needs. The law students were the finest example of hope that I

encountered. They told me that the future was theirs and that they needed and

wanted our help. I believe we should be paying more attention and giving greater

effort to restoring higher education. These law students are the immediate future.

When we met with them a week later, they had formed a protective association, a

bus for transportation, found a disused grammar school for classes, and got their

assistant dean to round up some professors who were teaching them. Still they

need help and I am trying to get some help for them from our law schools. LSU has

refused, Seton Hall and Rutgers have promised to help; I have not contacted Tulane,

Loyola or Southern yet. Upon returning to Baghdad, I went to the Ministry of

Justice to review the situation in the south. I took advantage of the situation

and said the following: "I have read a little of your history. I know you are a

proud people who have risen from the ashes in the past, so I must tell you that I

am saddened and disappointed. I have talked to hundreds of you over the past

five weeks, almost everyone educated and privileged. What I have heard is what you

want from us, how the Americans have to fix this and give you money and equipment,

protect you from you own. The only adults planning on the future were those law

students in Basra who had lost everything - their books, their desks, their

records, their school. And they were doing something about it on their own. You

need to do some of these things for yourselves. If you are depending on us to do

everything, you are going to be sadly disappointed." I got a few nods from the

judges, but the translator said to me: "Thank you. I have been waiting for someone

to tell them that."

Our soldiers, God love them and keep them; they smiled every time I got a chance

to talk to them. They want to come home, but I did not hear one word of complaint

nor a question as to why they were there. This is boring, HOT, dirty, and

dangerous work. They stand in 120 plus degrees in full body armor. They are amazing.

Their entertainment was largely self-generated; boredom doesn't stop when they

stand down. Write a letter, send a note or email; send a book, cd, tape, or

magazine; do something.

 

Thank you.

 

Submitted by:

Barbara Bessent

 

[Guest Guest]

Joan, thanks for posting this. What a breath of fresh air, so much better than those reports on CNN!!! Good to hear something really informative for a change. And I liked the part about telling the people to do something for themselves, too. sg

[Guest Guest]

This is the same kind of thing that our soldier's in Iraq have witnessed, and is the reason they believe in what they are doing....that they are making a difference in the lives of the Iraqi's.

 

It's nice to hear the viewpoint of someone not affiliated with the media. Thanks for posting. I wish I could have been there to listen to the Judge.

 

Throughout history though, the people of the Middle East have lived as they are now; waiting for someone to tell them what to do, for someone else to "fix" things. They have been fighting amongst themselves for years and years. The US and GB are making a valient effort to help them help themselves, but I wonder if a democracy will ever truly be possible there. I hope so, but I wonder.......