RUINATION TO REVITALIZATION REBUILDING A WARTORN CITY IN

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 • 2 LT 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 ECONOMICS ESSENTIAL SERVICES GOVERNANCE STABILITY SECURITY

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