Bemer

Bemer

Bremer stepped off of the plane in Baghdad on May 12th, 2003. He had never been there, and he knew nothing of Iraq or the Arabic language. He was being put in charge of a country that was emerging from war, and it became quite obvious (although he would never admit to it) that the Iraqis knew more about their country than he did. Still, Bremer proceeded to throw himself (with great discipline and devotion) head first into the mission of guiding Iraq out of its collapse. In the words of Thomas Ricks, author of Fiasco, Bremer was “Determined to show that there was a new sheriff in town”.
When speaking of Bremer’s character, George Packer, author of The Assassins Gate stated, “Bremer was driven and hard charging, with no shortage of self confidence”. Packer went on to elaborate on this confidence by stating, “(he imagined) that he could prevail over adversity on the strength of his character”. Bremer’s character and his style of leadership (or lack thereof) would become the topic of a number of heated discussions. His colleagues didn’t hold back when expressing their strong opposition of him. “Fierce”, “demanding”, “uncompromising”, and “unsympathetic”, were just a few of the adjectives that were used to describe him. He made a series of controversial decisions, and if someone wanted to challenge these decisions, he would stand behind them without wavering. Regardless of the impressions that he left behind, he was not going to back down from his decisions. In the words of Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author if Imperial Life in Emerald City, “Bremer expected everyone to get on board”.
In terms of Bremer’s leadership style, the opinions are equally as critical. Thos who worked with him closely quickly developed strong opinions. On page 72 of his book, Chandrasekaran describes the opinions expressed by Henry Kissinger, who worked with Bremer for 15 years. When asked about Bremer’s leadership style, Kissinger’s reply was “ he’s...