Garrels, Anne, Naked in Baghdad, The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003
Anne Garrels was a reporter for National Public Radio who went to Baghdad in 2002 to witness the U.S. invasion and how it impacted Iraqis. Naked in Baghdad, The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent is a series of journal entries about her day to day activities joined by emails that her husband sent out to update her friends and family about what was happening. Garrels was able to capture the feelings of everyday Iraqis and a little slice of life in the Iraqi capital during this tumultuous time.
One of the first things Garrels explained was how the Iraqi authorities treated journalists. It reminded her of a previous posting to the Soviet Union. Reporters were only give 10 day visas by the Information Ministry and had to pay hefty fees and bribes to get them each time. They had to leave their satellite phones with the Ministry. There were also government minders and spies everywhere. In one hotel she stayed in there were agents in the elevator, on each floor and one of her fixers was a spy as well. Everyday her room was searched when she was out. One time they double bolted her door and she couldn’t get back in. They were also taken on official tours to hear government propaganda about the war. This was like a business for some of the higher officials one of which went to reporters right before the city fell to U.S. forces demanding bribes as part of his official duties. He allegedly collected around $200,000. This matched what Iraqis told her about life under Saddam where everyone was paranoid about someone informing on them. It was part of life under a totalitarian regime.
Since most of the reporters congregated at the same hotels the author got a glimpse into how they operated. Many talked about the compromises they had to make to stay in Iraq during the invasion. Many self-censored so they wouldn’t get on the bad side of officials and be expelled. That meant not talking about things like how Saddam ruled the country or anything about his family. CNN and BBC were under special pressure because all their stories were watched by the government when they aired on TV. Others tried to buy off officials by giving them money, gifts or meals. Some gave their stories to the Information Ministry before they were published to be okayed. The journalists believed this was the price they had to pay to get the big story which was the invasion. Ironically almost all of them left before the shooting started as their outlets were worried about their safety.
The best parts of Naked In Baghdad are when the author got out into the streets and was able to talk to regular people. During a government trip she went to a paint factory where the owner warned that young Iraqis were frustrated with the lack of jobs and opportunities. While they blamed Saddam they also blamed the West for sanctions and the U.S. would have to deal with their anger after the invasion something they did not handle well.
Another time Garrels got to talk to a female doctor who said that war and sanctions since the 1980s had left many women poor and uneducated and that caused health problems. One woman brought in her one year old son who had parasites. The women was poor and uneducated and said she wasn’t going to send her children to school either. She knew nothing about using nets or repellent to keep the parasites away. Finally the medicine needed to treat the kid was banned under sanctions and the mother didn’t have money to buy it on the black market. That gave insight into how life overall had deteriorated in the past few decades due to both Saddam’s rule and the West who wanted to contain him.
Garrels was able to meet some foreigners who came to Iraq as human shields to protest the war. They were an unorganized lot and only a few dozen in total. They argued amongst themselves because they had many different views from some supporting the Iraqi government to some just being against the invasion. They wanted to protect humanitarian facilities like hospitals but the government told them they they could go, gave them minders and scripts to repeat when talking to the media. The majority ended up leaving disheartened by the whole experience because they realized they were just pawns.
When the bombing started the author was able to sneak out of her hotel with another woman reporter for the Guardian and visit a family that the latter knew. They were huddled inside their house terrified because there was a military base next door that had been hit several times. The family blamed Saddam for their problems but also resented the United States asking what right did it have to determine their future?
Finally, after Baghdad was taken she got a sight of the chaos that ensued. Looting spread through the city with various government offices being set on fire. The National Library was also burned leading to the loss of countless treasures. Garrels went to three hospitals where there was only one doctor working in each because the rest of the staff had fled. In one facility the doctor complained that he lacked supplies and couldn’t sterilize anything while the power went out leaving all the bodies in the morgue to rot. Another doctor at a Neurological Hospital worried that some of the patients had died due to lack of treatment during the fighting. In the last hospital a doctor blamed the U.S. complaining that it should have prepared for such situations. This matched a general apprehension the author found amongst Iraqis about what was happening to their country and the seeming lack of authority the Americans were exerting. That would undermine the U.S.’s hold on the country and lead to all kinds of trouble.
The importance of Naked in Baghdad is the stories of individual Iraqis told Garrels. While many were against Saddam they were also suspicious of American intentions and later disappointed with how they let Baghdad collapse into lawlessness. Many Western books on Iraq aren’t focused upon Iraqis and few include the general populace. The book also provides a look into what it is like for journalists in authoritarian and corrupt regimes where they are expected to constantly pay off officials and some compromised their integrity to stay in the country. The book is a very quick read and gives some very interesting stories surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq as seen from Baghdad.
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