RUINATION TO REVITALIZATION: REBUILDING A WAR-TORN CITY IN BAGHDAD

Christopher L. Allen

Georgia Tech

City and Regional Planning

Graduate Student

CONTENTS• Baghdad: Historical Context• Perspective from Saydiyah• Lines of Effort

• Security• Economics• Essential Services• Governance

• Obstacles and Constraints• Lasting Effects• Lessons Learned

BAGHDAD: MODERN CONTEXT

•OIF Post-Surge, 2007.

•U.S. COIN Strategy shift

•2LT Allen deployment

PERSPECTIVE FROM SAYDIYAH• Pop: ~40,000• Majority Ba’athist

community• 2007: sectarian violence• Jan 2008: abandonment• Rashid District• Internally Displaced

Persons (IDPs), squatters

LINES OF EFFORT

SECURITY

ECONOMICS

ESSENTIAL SERVICES

GOVERNANCE

STA

BIL

ITY

SECURITY

• Weapons trafficking, insurgents

• T-Wall Solution• Joint U.S./Iraqi Army patrols

• Iraqi National Police Checkpoints within walls

• Sons & Daughters of Iraq: local concerned citizens

ECONOMICS

•Micro-Grants•Fruit and Fish Market project

•Rafidain Bank Reopening

•Job Creation

ESSENTIAL SERVICES•Education•Clinic•Roads•Sewers•Trash management

•Power generation

GOVERNANCE

•Reconciliation•Support Council: “unelected” body, local sheiks

•Balance of power•Primary function: Resettlement

OBSTACLES AND CONSTRAINTS

• Culture gap• Language barrier• Enemy threat• Weather & Climate• Training• Collective Benefit• Adjudicating legitimacy: Iraqi-led

LASTING EFFECTS

• Saydiyah set the standard• January 2010: 7,200 families reintegrated

• Gradual drawdown, return to normalcy• Over $1 Million dollars invested• Sporadic sectarian & insurgency violence

• 31 December 2011: U.S. Withdrawal out of Iraq

LESSONS LEARNED• Citizen input CRUCIAL• No perfect 100% solution• Quality of life significantly improved

• No “one best way”• All military objectives accomplished despite obstacles

• Outside agency support• Transition to Iraqi control• Deliberate analysis