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Original Launch Date: October 24, 2007

USIP's Iraq program aims to promote political reconciliation, strengthen government institutions, and facilitate positive international engagement. As part of this program, USIP has maintained a small office in the Green Zone in Baghdad since early 2004. Rusty Barber, a former political officer in the Foreign Service, has run the office since March 2007. His regular dispatches offer a lively and sobering insider's view of the promise and peril facing U.S. efforts in that country.

November 29, 2007

My first Thanksgiving in Baghdad consisted of roasted lamb on a spit served with canned cranberry sauce. Not exactly what our pilgrim forbears in my native Massachusetts Bay Colony would have imagined, but welcome nevertheless. And there was indeed much to be thankful for, not the least of which was the fact that no one was seriously injured in the mortar attack late that afternoon. Their fortunes diminished of late, it seems the insurgents felt the need to contribute to the festivities in their own special way.

With conflict mitigation trainings happening around Baghdad, ongoing reconciliation initiatives, and a civic education program in the works for the city’s secondary schools, the Baghdad office is as busy as it’s ever been. Our facilitators are organizing and conducting dialogues and seminars across ethnic and religious boundaries at the national level on down to the community level around Iraq. As I write, a USIP facilitator is working with officials from five government ministries to develop a common strategy to improve the distribution of services in Baghdad. In Mahmoudiya, where USIP recently helped convene a tribal reconciliation conference, local activists have developed a follow-on project to educate the population on the goals agreed to by the sheikhs and to encourage citizens to push for action on them through local government. Reconciliation at the national level may remain stuck in gridlock, but at the local level there are modest but important gains being made.

The road to lasting stability is dauntingly long- and even good news sometimes has a double edge to it. With the security situation improving daily, for example, displaced families are starting to return to the homes they abandoned or were driven from. But the formerly mixed neighborhoods they left are often now segregated along lines of sectarian demarcation. Many returnees are finding their homes occupied by "new owners" who are unwilling to vacate. The government has indicated that it intends to provide compensation, but has so far made no progress on legislation to make that commitment a reality. With millions of Iraqis displaced internally and externally, unless key policy and legal prescriptions—such as property rights are in place to protect the rights of returnees, a whole new round of conflict could well ensue.

Hunkered down on the floor of the entrance to my compound with other "returnees" from Thanksgiving dinner, waiting for an unexploded round to be control-detonated, I wondered where Iraq will be the next time turkey-day rolls around. With any luck, giving thanks for more lights that remain lit for longer hours, a citizenry that is starting to feel its government cares about its basic needs, neighbors who respect rather than kill one another….and fewer Americans who insist on eating cranberry sauce with lamb.