Also an American Legacy in Iraq: a commentary and a review

The scene is dark. All the spectators can hear is the soft spoken voice of a scared man reflecting on hopes crashed following American invasion in Iraq in 2003. ‘Betrayed’ a play by George Packer, author of the ‘Assassin’s Gate’ and directed by Pippin Parker tells the story of three young Iraqis “who loved America too much”. When the lights go on, we can see his figure: how the sharp lines in a tired face do not match up with the warmth of the voice! It is a Friday evening at ‘Culture Project’, a tiny, charming theatre on Mercer Street in SoHo. I had planned to see the play ever since reading ‘Imperial Life in the Emerald City’, an insider’s story told by Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. “Death to Saddam, long live the American liberators!” an actor portraying a Sunni Iraqi in Western clothes yells while tearing apart a poster of the former Iraqi dictator. The scene is vivid. It reminded me of images we had seen in Eastern Germany and other Eastern European countries once communism fell. “Death to Ceausescu”, the Romanian people in late 1989 demanded liberation both, from a brutal tyrant and his hardliner interpretation of socialism. The early 1990s also saw the international community punish Saddam Hussein for having invaded oil-rich Kuwait; twelve years later, America decided to finish off Hussein himself by toppling his regime. Chandrasekaran’s book highlights the enormity of betrayal of American values that followed in the aftermath of the war in 2003. High hopes by Iraqi civilians for a speedy process of economic, political and social peace-building efforts spearheaded by Americans did not materialize. It is obvious that the Administration had not planned how to improve or safeguard the well-being of Iraqi civilians. ‘Citizen safety’ was not a major concern. Children being able to go to school – a prerequisite for stability in any society – has remained a key failure of America’s legacy in post-Saddam Iraq. In ‘Judgement at Nuremberg’, a movie on the American war crime tribunals in occupied Germany following World War II, Spencer Tracy acts as the presiding American Judge. In a key scene, he can be quoted saying: “You have got to stand for something. And, America stands for truth, justice and the value of one single life”.
Back on stage on Mercer Street, three young, inspired translators who had put all their hopes for a better future on working for the Americans in the Green Zone, lament about the daily risks for their life. They are too afraid to carry their American issued badges when returning to their home neighborhoods after a day’s hard work for the ‘occupiers’. “The Americans don’t seem to care”, the female translator shakes her head, still in disbelief. Every day they have to line up among ordinary Iraqi citizens in front of the Assassin’s Gate, the entry point to the Green Zone. Their security badges deny them the privilege of speedy entry that American and international civilians have. Hostile Iraqis eye them every morning when lining up in front of the gate: “this puts us on the spot for being killed! At a minimum, one would assume the Americans want to keep their translators!” one of the main character, Adnan exclaims. The curtain falls. End of act one: darkness surrounds us.

(Michaela, 'Writing Across Media', The New School for General Studies, July 2008)