How the US government deals with critical and sensitive issues–including policing Iraq, accounting for the war dead and prisoners of war, supporting the transition to indigenous leadership, and recovering cultural artifacts–will determine international attitudes toward America for years to come, said Jennifer Leaning, director, Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, to an HSPH audience on April 22. Leaning delivered the lecture "Iraq: Issues of Post-Conflict Reconstruction" as part of the Great Place to Work Community Forums: Faculty Research Speaker Series.

"There are a number of very important responsibilities the U.S. now has," she said, "and the world is going to be watching, particularly the human rights and legal communities, to see if they are met."

Recognizing that the direct consequences of the war, including the number of Iraqi military and civilian casualties, are not yet fully known, Leaning nevertheless said initial reports suggest that coalition forces–with their vaunted ‘smart bombs’–"took great care to minimize civilian casualties."

Her view of the Bush administration’s handling of what she called the current "limbo" period, after Saddam Hussein’s fall, was harsher. Although officials have shied away from using the word "occupation," Leaning said the US government must acknowledge that it is engaged in such an operation. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on April 24 described the US-led coalition to the UN Human Rights Commission as the "occupying power’’ in Iraq. In response, US officials said that coalition forces are following international conventions, even though the status of the forces as an occupying power has not been established. International law dictates how an occupying power must behave toward the occupied country and its citizens, said Leaning.

The first priority, she said, is security: getting a police force on the ground to protect civilians, their hospitals and supplies, and other key institutions and assets. So far, coalition forces have failed to accomplish this, she said, resulting in estimates of hundreds of millions lost to looting within 10 days of the fall of Baghdad. Although she called the situation "tame" compared with the post-World War II chaos of Berlin and other European cities, she noted that expectations for the establishment of civil order during an occupation are much higher now under the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

"The slowness in deploying any kind of police power, I think, is already a grave mark" against the U.S. and its allies, she said.

Leaning criticized the American news media for focusing almost exclusively on the numbers of US and coalition casualties, leading to the perception that Iraqi deaths are of no concern to the U.S.

"An occupying power must come across as humane and respectful," she said, "and that includes accounting for the dead."

Nor did the coalition forces protect Iraq’s cultural riches, "not only precious, but irreplaceable," she said, based on the region’s role as the ‘cradle of civilization.’ Many treasures are feared fallen into the hands of unscrupulous collectors, effectively lost to the world.

At least 170,000 artifacts, some more than 5,000 years old, are thought to have been stolen by looters from the National Museum of Iraq.

"Iraqis are dismayed because it’s well known we guarded the oil rigs and oil wells, but we did not deploy anyone to guard these massively important sites," even though experts warned of the danger, she said.

Other key challenges include releasing POWs, putting a civilian face on humanitarian relief efforts, and ensuring that the rebuilding of Iraq does not become little more than a moneymaker for American companies. The U.S. Agency for International Development recently awarded Bechtel a contract worth up to $680 million. Again, Leaning sees little evidence that these challenges are being effectively met.

"We have grabbed this tiger by the tail," she concluded. "Are we prepared to think as productively, creatively, humanely [as we need to], and in a sustained fashion, to get this tiger into a tamer and more tractable place? That is a huge question, and I’m not sure any of us could answer it with confidence."

--Tom Reynolds