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ABSTRACT
Shortly after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, in his capacity as the chief administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), introduced several transitional justice mechanisms that set the course for how Iraqis would confront the legacy of past crimes for years to come. In developing these mechanisms, Bremer consulted with a select group of Iraqi exiles that had returned to Iraq or were still living abroad. However, he failed to solicit the opinions and attitudes of the Iraqi people as a whole. He also failed to consult many of the governmental and nongovernmental entities that could pass on to the CPA and future Iraqi governments the "lessons learned" and "best practices" gleaned from transitional justice processes in other countries. As a result, many of the mechanisms introduced by Bremer either backfired or were hopelessly flawed.
I. INTRODUCTION
In early March 2003, weeks before the US invasion of Iraq, CIA officials and senior military commanders gathered at Camp Doha, Kuwait to plan for the eventual siege of Baghdad by US and coalition forces. Intelligence officials were convinced that Iraqis would rush to the streets to welcome American soldiers as they rode triumphant into the Iraqi capital. One CIA operative suggested that US special forces and Iraqi sympathizers should sneak hundreds of small American flags into the country for Iraqis to wave at their liberators. The agency would capture the spectacle on film and beam it throughout the Middle East. It would be the ultimate photo-op designed to win the "hearts and minds" of doubters back in the United States and throughout the Arab world.
But the idea was quickly quashed by the US commander of allied ground forces, Lt. General David McKiernan, who told those assembled at the meeting that US troops had been instructed not to brandish the flag so as to avoid being perceived as an occupying army. Undeterred, the CIA officials continued to press the military officers for some form of pageantry to celebrate what they saw as an imminent military victory for the United States and its coalition allies. "At first, it was going to be US flags," a military officer who attended the meeting recalled, "and then it was going to be Iraqi...