"We Meant Well" by Peter Van Buren 

"We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People"
Winning hearts and minds is an idea in which mission success is not a function of superior force, but rather emotional and intellectual appeals to gain supporters from the other side of a conflict. In America’s bellicose past, the strategy was alternatively emphasized, implemented, and ignored during war, insurgencies, and other conflicts. The Iraq War (2003-2011) is no exception; the war demonstrated the efficacy of the “hearts and minds” tactic if it is properly put into practice. In his book, former Foreign Service Officer Peter Van Buren describes, from first-hand experience, how America’s decade-long occupation and the ongoing reconstruction of Iraq was mismanaged, leading to grievous misspending and waste. Van Buren’s lecture will emphasize the military and civilian leadership’s poor planning, disorganization, and lack of forethought for the future of Iraq and its people. He will describe how the U.S. State Department’s good intentions to defeat terrorism led down a road of counterintuitive and frivolous spending. Van Buren’s inside look at the State Department’s misguided efforts span from spending taxpayer money on a sports mural in Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhood, to pastry classes meant to train women to open cafés on bombed-out streets without water or electricity. Because of ineffective projects and bureaucratic fumbling, the Iraq reconstruction project is remembered as the most expensive hearts-and-minds campaign since the Marshall Plan.
Length: 68 Minutes
Lecture Date: November 19, 2014