Imperial Life in the Emerald City

Today is 07 November 2010

Day 10

Page No. 259 (some of the excerpts from the book)

THE GREEN ZONE, SCENE X

American military personnel stationed in the Republican Palace rarely had a kind work to say about the CPA. The soldiers, many of whom were majors and colonels, had been in uniform for more than two decades and resented being ordered around by CPA staffers in their twenties. Some of the soldiers had done tours in Kosovo, Haiti, and Somalia, and a few had even served in Vietnam. They knew a thing or two about post-conflict nation building. But to the CPA's young turks, the soldiers were drivers, guards, and errant boys. The civilians made policy; the soldiers implemented it.

Since the soldiers weren't supposed to drink, they didn't hang out at the bars or the al-Rasheed's disco. They kept to themselves, smoking in rear portico, exercising in the gym, and playing cards in their trailers. They maintained that things would be a whole lot better if they were in charge. The acronym CPA, they joked, stood for Can't Produce Anything.