Reading Profile 2/7

Stewart’s attitude towards the possibility of a successful democratization starts off pretty positive, feeling that people would be willing and wanting to assist in their own democratization. However, the longer that he was in Maysan he realized that it might still be a possibility but it would be a lot longer of a time to achieve. He discusses the hardship that it was to get people to be willing to accept the idea of creating a council that incorporated the different political groups is Maysan. Besides these problems in creating a democracy, I feel that there will also be problems in changing the mindset of the people. The natural reaction for many of the citizens was to use violence when something went wrong. I think that Stewart still remains hopeful for the possibility of a successful democratization in Iraq, but that it might not be accomplished in the time period that the Coalition is trying to set for it to take place.
To me, I felt that Seyyed Rory’s greatest challenge over his first several months was the lack of information that was provided to him and the lack of enthusiasm that he was faced with by the citizens. With three different politically diverse groups, each feeding him lines and different information about who to trust and who is good and who is bad is did not help him to get firmly rooted in Maysan. This lack of knowledge effected his ability to be a strong leader in the area because the people did not respect him. The Prince did not respect his choices and did not feel close enough to him to help him out. An example of this is when the Prince requests that the governor from America come faster because the Prince felt that Stewart would not be able to handle the job. “The coalition has done nothing for the people here, nothing. No construction, no jobs. The economy must be got going. People are poor and angry. Molly must come at once. She will get money for the providence…We need an American. The British can do nothing for us.” (pg. 74) It is instances like this that demonstrate the lack of respect that is given to Stewart. When leaders like the Prince do not respect there is going to be a natural lack of respect that will pass down to the average citizens.
Stewart gave many attempts to try and appease the people and win them over. He traveled around the providence asking different people what they felt needed to be done. Also, he continually tried to win over the approval of the Prince and of the other top regional leaders. Stewart continually tried to work on improving different aspects of the community that people complained were not being accomplished, yet, no one ever appreciated the effort and work to the standards that Stewart had expected.
I feel that some of the attitudes that were shown to Stewart were not completely unfair, because he was there attempting to help. However, I felt that he can’t be completely excused, he should have used some of his resources to more fully understand the situation in the providence. There were other coalition officers, such as the colonel, that understood the area better, and the needs of the people and I felt that Stewart did not take advantage of these resources. Overall, I felt that Stewart diligently tried to make a change in Maysan, despite the lack of appreciation that he received from locals.