Iraqis See Red as US Opens World’s Biggest Embassy
The 104-acre, 21-building enclave was cleared for occupancy recently and will open next month
BAGHDAD - For the average American who will never see it, the new US Embassy in Baghdad may be little more than the Big Dig of the Tigris.
Like the infamous Boston highway project, the embassy is a mammoth development that is overbudget, overdue, and casts a whiff of corruption.
For many Iraqis, though, the sand-and-ochre-colored compound peering out across the city from a reedy stretch of riverfront within the fortified Green Zone is an unsettling symbol both of what they have become in the five years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and of what they have yet to achieve.
“It is a symbol of occupation for the Iraqi people, that is all,” says Anouar, a Baghdad graduate student who thought it was risk enough to give her first name. “We see the size of this embassy and we think we will be part of the American plan for our country and our region for many, many years.”
The 104-acre, 21-building enclave - the largest US Embassy in the world, similar in size to Vatican City in Rome - is often described as a “castle” by Iraqis, but more in the sense of the forbidden and dominating than of the alluring and liberating.
“We all know this big yellow castle, but its main purpose, it seems, is the security of the Americans who will live there,” says Sarah, a university sophomore who also declined to give her last name for reasons of personal safety. “I heard that no one else can ever reach it.”
Among the Iraqi elites who have suffered so much in the chaos of the post-Hussein period - the professors, doctors, architects, and artists - the impact of the new American giant is often expressed more symbolically but sometimes using the same terms.
Castles in the sand
“Saddam had his big castles; they symbolized his power and were places to be feared, and now we have the castle of the power that toppled him,” says Abdul Jabbar Ahmed, a vice dean for political sciences at Baghdad University. “If I am the ambassador of the USA here I would say, ‘Build something smaller that doesn’t stand out so much, it’s too important that we avoid these negative impressions.’ ”
Yet while the new embassy may be the largest in the world, it is not in its design and presence unlike others the US has built around the world in a burst of overseas construction since the bombings of US missions in the 1980s and ’90s. Efforts to provide the 12,000 American diplomats working overseas a secure environment were redoubled following the 9/11 attacks.
Designed according to what are called the “Inman standards” - the results of a 1985 commission on secure embassy construction headed by former National Security Agency head Bobby Inman - recent embassies have been built as fortified compounds away from population centers and surrounded by high walls.
In the case of larger embassies in the most dangerous environments, as in Baghdad, secure housing is included, along with some of the amenities of home - restaurants, gyms, pools, cinemas, shopping - that can give the compound the air of an enclave.
The US government cleared the new Baghdad Embassy for occupancy last week, with the embassy’s 700 employees and up to 250 military personnel expected to move in over the month of May, according to Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
$1 billion a year to operate
The $740 million compound - expected to cost more than $1 billion a year to operate - was originally expected to cost $600 million to build and was to open in September 2007. Design changes and faulty construction caused repeated delays.
Congress learned last fall of problems with the site’s electrical system, and early this year reports surfaced of significant problems with the fire-fighting systems.
Nevertheless, embassy personnel have been anxious for the complex, with more than 600 blast-resistant apartments, to open and give them some refuge from the mortar fire that has increasingly targeted the Green Zone this year. Last month, a mortar slammed into one of the unfortified trailers where personnel now sleep, killing an American civilian contractor. At least two US soldiers have died from rocket fire on the Green Zone since then.
But even the embassy’s opening may not be assuaging diplomats’ concerns about assignments in Iraq. Last week, the State Department warned that it may start ordering employees to serve at the embassy next year if more volunteers do not come forward for the 300 posts expected to open.
The State Department announcement follows a similar warning last fall of a shortfall of volunteers for about 50 Iraq positions. Candidates were eventually found without any compulsory assignments for 2008, but the prospect of ordered assignments to a war zone caused tensions at the department.
Such challenges to the full manning of the new embassy have yet to reach Iraqi ears. Still, some Iraqis who condemn the imagery of the imposing new compound say they are even more critical of what, in an indirect way, it also tells Iraqis about their own leadership.
“What does it say to Iraqis that we cannot walk along a beautiful part of the river in our own land because of this big American place?” says Qasim Sabti, an Iraqi artist and Baghdad gallery owner. “But it shows us something else about our own government,” he adds. “At least the Americans could build this thing, but we Iraqis have no new buildings or streets, everything is destroyed - but still the corruption is so great that the money goes into pockets before it can build something new.”
Other Iraqis say the embassy highlights the long-term interests the US has in both Iraq and the region.
“If it is so big, it is a reflection of the size of the designs they have for Iraq and the Middle East,” says Maimoon al-Khaldi, an actor and professor at Baghdad’s Fine Arts Academy. “It is a sign of their energy agenda and of their security agenda in this region,” he adds. “This building faces the Iraqis, yes, but also the Iranians they have declared to be their enemies.”
Mr. Jabbar says the Americans “surely have a right and duty to protect their delegation here.” But he says he still wouldn’t have built something so large.
“That is too much of a symbol,” he says. “It sends a message to the Iraqis that says, ‘Be careful, we removed Saddam Hussein and we can remove what has come after him anytime we want.’”
Copyright © 2008 The Christian Science Monitor
That friggin embassy portrays to the entire world’s citizens, just how incredibbly stupid we are.
It casts a “WHIFF” of corruption?___ Haa haaaaaaa haaaaa, whoop. ___ More like a tornado in a cess pool of corruption.
Why does the US need an embassy in a nation that it occupies?
This is a fort and its completion confirms that John McClone was not speaking hypothetically when he alluding to the 100 year occupation of Iraq.
Is that $700 million to build that monstrosity correct? ___ I understood the cost so far was several billion, or did that include the price for the entire “Green Zone”?
Sometimes I feel so alone, ____ but some here at C/D say I’m paranoid and if that’s so I’d never be alone. Opps there is another blogger now __ Whew.
A disturbing example of Bu$hCo’s abject arrogance, imperial overweening dominion …What ever happened to the “winning the hearts and minds” [hubris]….This basically says to average Iraqis and the rest of the world…F#ck-you
I concur, ‘how incredibly stupid’..The cost of this monstrosity is obscene..
It has the “air” of an enclave? Please. It’s a disgrace. It makes me want to leave the U.S. so I won’t pay taxes to support this billion dollar monstrosity.
The US obviously has no intention of ever leaving Iraq… That’s a real shame for the Iraqi people… It REALLY bothers me how the United States is “above” international law… that it doesn’t seem to apply to them… That these war criminals can roam free.
Yes, when they say Embassy, they mean Fortress.
Most disgusting building in the world!!!!!!!!!
Repulsive, horrifying and dismaying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Karita Hummer
Now let us count those tax dollars and war crimes !
$3 Trillion has been wasted to date for a five year invasion and occupation.
Thus, a 100 year occupation (or more) would run about $60 Trillion plus interest on the debt assuming other fascist countries like China are willing to loan America money to engage in non-profit war crimes.
And the only winners if this grand criminal scheme prevails will be the MIC and American oil corporations seeking to “privatize” (steal) Iraq’s oil. And keep in mind these are the same energy companies robbing us at the pump and realizing record profits while the American economy is collapsing. With Iraq’s oil worth an estimated $10 Trillion in revenues, the already in-debt American public will be paying about $6.00 to subsidize every $1.00 of oil profits for Big Oil.
Meanwhile, the 151 members of Congress who hold stocks in MIC corporations can continue to vote their conscience on imperial foreign policy. And according to official policy “we don’t do body counts,” so the million or so dead Iraqis have no market value. Etc.
The American embassy in Iraq stands as a living example of American international corporate fascism and crimes against humanity subsidized by the American public !
All that money.. you think they could have just bought off the “insurgents”..
but then again the MIC would not be profiting from the “overhead” needed to maintain the dam thing.
Painting it the color they did was silly, should have just placed a big “bull’s eye” on it… it is now going to be the target to hit, by anyone in that part of the world with a beef against the USA..(Russian, N Korean, Chinese,Iranian false flag events?) oh wait that might be what George Jr means when he says if we fight “them” there we won’t have to fight “them” here.
Jim
canada jim_murray@jdz.ca
Is it too late to cancel payment of my 2007 taxes??
I surely would like to. The picture of this atrocity should have been front page in major newspapers on April 15 with line item details regarding cost to US taxpayers!
To think that for all the money spent, we could have had solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, high speed trains, single payer healthcare, free higher education, good paying jobs, a healthy environment and peace…
Yeah, but we’re just tryin’ to help ‘em, see…and, uh, Iraq oil will pay for everything. And when it’s real safe, we can build a DisneyWorld next door.
The $750 million construction cost is not very expensive for the size and complexity of the fort. Construction costs were kept low by using “contractors” who provided cheap labor. Iraqis were not allowed to work on it, so the same labor pool that is being used to build Dubai was tapped for this project.
KEM PATRICK - calm yourself, my friend.
Noways are you alone.
Say your words if you have them, and know that they will be read.
It would have only cost a half billion, but at the last minute they upgraded the torture and rape rooms as part of the occupant’s recreation facilities.
amazing..its been a while since anyone build a “Crusader Castle”…will Bush ressurect the Templars to staff them?
American imperialism at its finest.
-James
www.thepoliticus.org
104 acres, eh? Should be easy to lob home-made missiles then.
Simonhhh (and everyone else hit it on the head):
Why don’t they make a 1000′ high flagpole in the shape of a middle-finger and hang the American flag from it! Also, I heard that they are going to build a Disneyland in Baghdad. WTF???
Boy, if this isn’t the epitome of arrogance, what else is?
A monument to arrogance, hubris, ignorance, war mongering, elitism, war crimes, torture, theft, NATION BUILDING and crony capitalism.
In other words - a tomb to American hegemony, courtesy of the signers of PNAC and the criminal Repubican party
In America it is never done until it is over done.
The Institution of Satan
Guantanamo II. Now we can close down the first one. It would be a nice touch if they used a section of Abu Ghraib as the corner stone.
Big targets are easy to……
A dream - King George gets exiled and goes to live in the crumbling castle he has built.
Could this be the last gasp of a falling empire?
the amenities of home - restaurants, gyms, pools, cinemas, shopping
The opiates of home. They keep the brains washed. They keep the fears alive. They distract Americans from the foreign culture around the imperial outpost.
Americans who love foreign cultures may find their way into diplomatic work, but they are not the coveted employees. The coveted employees are the ones who view diplomatic work as an imperial foot in the door.
Let us just for a moment imagine there will be a brighter day, a day in which the USA is bound by its own volition and the awareness of the horrors that it has been committing to accept ruling of the ICC (International Criminal Court) condemning members of the present and past administration for their crimes against humanity, crimes such as, supporting state terror, supporting non-state militias, perpetrating wars of aggression, contravening rules of war and the Geneva Conventions, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, torture, and assassination. Let us imagine that a time will come when Iraq can claim its justified reparations for the unprovoked destruction brought on it.
A minor part of that compensation which must amount to hundreds of billions of dollars may well be the return to Iraq of the sovereign territory and these buildings of this monstrous US embassy.
Would it not make an excellent and monumental prison, something for the world to see and remember? For a start, here is a list of just some of the more obvious long term inmates that might be welcomed.
William Clinton
General Wesley Clark
George H. W. Bush
General Colin Powell
General Norman Schwarzkopf
Elliott Abrams
Caspar Weinberger
Lt. Col. Oliver North
Henry Kissinger
Gerald Ford
Robert McNamara
General William Westmoreland
George W. Bush,
Richard Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice,
Paul Bremer
Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
John Yoo
Alberto Gonzalez,
Cofer Black
Erik Prince
General Boykin
Stephen Cambone
Maj. Gen Geoffrey Miller
I’m sure the woodwork holds many more once the digging starts and when we realise that we still must accomodate Anthony Blair and the rest of the British, Australian and other national contingents, and yes, let us not forget our many Israeli friends who today continue their illegal occupation, collective punishment, and genocide of their Palestinian neighbours….
Hell, the place is almost too small… But what a perfectly location, and what a lovely day that would be, but most of all, what a better world this would be for all of us.
For some reference on crimes see: http://members.aol.com/superogue/warcrime.htm and http://www.counterpunch.org/stephens05132005.html but if you don’t know already it’s time to do some homework.
Doesn’t it kinda look like a giant version of those religious compounds in Texas?
Kem - you are not alone, in thinking as you do, there are lots of us.
This is a disgrace, and it is a monument to arrogance, greed, violence and evil.
It is almost as if the US is saying - “this is our prize, we have Iraq, we have the oil, and we are building this as a lasting testament to what we can do”
I bet Kem knows that if you are not paranoid, you are not paying attention.
During the Crusades, the European invaders built castles all over Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. From these fortresses they would sally forth on horseback to tax the caravans and put down insurrections.
http://www.infohub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6329
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is just the latest addition.
I’ve seen film of a tall, fully-armored U.S. Colonel in fatigues, boots, gloves and equipment harness, with rifle, helmet and sunglasses, standing with a small, weathered village elder in Iraq.
The imposing American was telling the smaller man to keep the young men in his village “in line”. He was wearing Kevlar instead of chain mail, but otherwise it was a scene right out of the 13th Century.
An embassy that is so secure that none can enter… Ok, funny name for that concept. I thought an embassy was built to facilitate communication between the peoples of the world; idealist, I know…
The us media might continue to call this monstrosity an embassy, I’ll call it the seat of government in occupied Iraq.
Maybe the Iraqi resistance can use it as a torture museam after they kick the occupiers out.
By “civilian contractor” does the author mean a construction worker or rather soldier for hire or mercenary — in which case, the Christian Science Monitor should refrain from using Orwellian BushCo terminology.
War is peace
Occupation is liberation
Death is life
So, tell me was the “contractor” referred to in the article a soldier for hire (a part of the U.S. occupation who in turn lost his life in this illegal Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Wolfowitz/Betrayus travesty).
We will never know the real costs for this outrageous colossus, this ill conceived war, nor the actual profits of Halliburton et al.
The prime for these unprecedented outrages lies not with the Bush team. Instead it lies with moron voters who helped them steal two elections, the five justices betrayed their trust by planting this zealot in office, our legislators for bowing to pressure and slander permitting these abuses, and an apathetic populace for doing nothing while they watch them inflict immeasurable damage to our republic and our planet.
American embassy in Baghdad is a symbol of the AMERICAN MADE DEMOCRACY. As imperial fortresses were built by slaves, so also this American fortress is built by forced labour (through extraordinary rendition). As America is founded on an occupied land, this American fortress is built on an occupied land. As there is a vast gulf between the occupiers and the owners (native Americans) of the land in the US, so also this American embassy symbolises that gulf between the occupiers and the owners of the land. These massive buildings and the luxuries within can not hide the death and destruction of Iraqis and their properties caused by the occupiers of these buildings.
The Fortress Built to “Inman” Standards.
Now he mans a Fortress against Freedom.
Bobby Inman is now an Executive Officer with SAIC, the San Diego Company that writes SuperSecret Softwawre for Diebold.
America is so far away.
The Bush Ziggurat. I bet the ancient Romans would be impressed with this.
Does anyone believe the “insurgents” don’t already have plans to blow this monument to moronity to smithereens? They surely have watched it being built and probably have their people already placed on the inside”.
Well, the Iranian mullahs have to point their imaginary nukes at something don’t they?
Naomi Klein (who has been in the green zone) says the walls around it are 5 meters thick. She also uses the green zone as a metaphor for the way the world is divided between rich and poor. And on a global level we are living in our own green zone, with all the amenities.
anyway i was cruising around a few minutes ago and i found i could watch a short film about Iraq’s disabled athletes. i did. At the beginning is a commercial. the commercial shows sturdy healthy americans teeing of on a luxurious, spacious golf course. then we cut to Iraq where we see little kids racing on crutches.
I guess this “Embassy” makes the Embassy Suites look like a rest stop.
No ~Jim Glover~, paranoid people are never alone.___ I find myself to be alone at times. That’s when I cuddle my wife’s house cat, ___who hates me.
Our largest trading partner is Canada. The American embassy there is a plain office building.___ Nothing special.
This embassy in Baghdad was built for Halliburtons’s and KBR’s financial benefit. So I don’t understand why Cheney or Bush would have wanted it? ___ Anyone know?
No way is Kem alone, just quicker than most of us. The embassy is worse than what Bruce Cockburn sings about in the song, Nicaragua, the American embassy, in Managua like Dracula’s tower.
A billion dollar embassy,four mega bases,and still no reliable electricy,sewage or water supplies for Iraqis.Gas lines for Iraqis,but plenty of fuel for the military.These are the prioroties,does anyone doubt a hundred year occupation? peace
Maybe some day they can turn that fortress into a shopping mall.
Remember the Alamo?? History tends to repeat.
Nice. I’m certain there are more than a few folks in New Orleans, East St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Detroit who wonder why the US Gov’t is spending all overseas that money rather than here at home.
Additions to Lucitanian’s war criminal list:
Michael Ledeen
Richard Perle
Feith (first name?)
Madeleine Albright
Gen. Petraeus
John Ashcroft
Irvine Kristol
William Kristol
There are more, so many to think of…
I’m not religious, but does this embassy not remind anyone of the hubris of the Tower of Babel.
WTF Said: “104 acres, eh? Should be easy to lob home-made missiles then.”
Yeah it’d be pretty hard to miss that monstrosity… Though, the place is Blast Resistant, therefore, you’d need one of those Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrators that BushCo is so fond of…
A Voice Apart:“Feith (first name?)”
It’s Douglas Feith… Or as I like to call him Lucifer Jr.
It is not an EMBASSY, it’s a new PALACE!
johnny hempseed said: A billion dollar embassy,four mega bases,and still no reliable electricy,sewage or water supplies for Iraqis.Gas lines for Iraqis,but plenty of fuel for the military.These are the prioroties,does anyone doubt a hundred year occupation? peace
Well Johnny, tell me, do you really think that the Americans care about the Iraqi people AT ALL? They’re just a bunch of Rag Heads, Sand Niggers, Hadjis… They’re NOT people. So once you’ve accepted their dehumanization in your mind, it’s no problem to starve them, kill them, rape them, make them suffer. THAT my dear Johnny is what the Good ol’ US of A stands for.
You know, something just occurred to me… Why not break the union up into it’s states and let them be sovereign nations! Do away with the federal government all together. THAT would be best for everyone. A little Homegrown Balkanization. That would mean giving up your overseas Properties but that’s a small price to pay. I guess Virginia can absorb D.C., OR, how about we turn D.C. in the world museum of corruption.
Thanks Elmysterio. Lucifer Jr. eh? One of many of the nasty little offspring (spawn) of the Great Satan?
Looks like someone forgot to paint the Bulls Eye on the side of it.
Disney as well? The worst of everything the US has to offer. Though, if we force feed them 100 years of Disney maybe our “Democracy” might catch on.
I hate to confess my ignorance, but would it be too much trouble that when someond introduces the acronym MIC, they would put in parenthesis behind it what it stands for? Would someone help me out here?
thank you
Impeachem,
It stands for the Military Industrial Complex.
Thank you claudius. I guess I could have figured it out eventually, but it was bugging me, so I thought I’d ask. It’s nice to know that there are kind people on this “forum” who would help an ignorant like-minded comrade out.
Thanks again claudius
Impeachem,
No need to apologize. One of the things that makes CD so enjoyable is that aside from the excellent articles, many posters here also provide intelligent and insightful information with links that you will not get on any of the Corporate Media sites. You are welcome.
Peace,
claudius
How about we name it The “Knew-Orleans” and I’m so ashamed of our government! I could elaborate but ya’ll know what I’m sayin’…
Hey, Impeachem….sending a cyber-hug…Thank You claudius.
It has the look of a tomb.
That is where the Whitehouse will move to after the Bush/Cheney caused false flag incident in Washington DC due before Nov 2008.
False Flag- it will be falsely claimed that GW Bush is dead, Cheney will become acting commander in Chief, martial Law will become the law of USA, food will be scarce to nonexistant, Oil and Gas for heating will not flow, Millions will starve and freeze to death, Blackwater USA will hunt down any dissenters past and present and execute on the spot.
There will be a declaration that the USA is now a Christian Nation governed by a Christian government, children will be taken from parents and put in segregated “nurseries” Parents will have visiting hours. School children will be required to say the “Our Father” before the Pledge of Allegiance, morning, noon, and night. Any children dissenting will be whipped and vinegar poured on there wounds. Home computers will be banned. Non professionals will be gassed and cremated as they are considered a liability and drain on society.
Proctor and Gamble headquarters will move to Utah.
And a bust of G.W.Bush will be carved on the Mt.Rushmore hillside.
It’s the plutocrats, stupid.
It would be interesting to take a random poll to find out how many Americans know about this mammoth American embassy in Baghdad? Would they even care?
America crumbles while we spend trillions in the Middle East and for what? This isn’t about keeping this country safer, it is about control of the Middle East and it’s oil and dictating policy to China who we owe billions to. Hey, their loans have helped to build this very American embassy!
Have we crossed the Rubicon and is there any turning back from this Orwellian nightmare?
Where’s Jerry Wright when we need him? This monument to Americanism needs a dedicatory prayer.
Most Americnas don’t know shit about any embassy. Most would probably assume that embassy is normal. The press won’t address it of course. Maybe Keth Olbermann.
Even Howard Hughes didn’t spend that type of money on a big “personal” movie theater,
But then again, neither did bu$hities spend any of “their own” money
Impeachem: Don’t feel bad. It took me about three or four months to figure out what IMO stood for. I was to embarrassed to ask. I figured what BTW stood for in less then two weeks. MSM took me at least a month. A lot of sophisticated writers on CD. (three days of strenuous thinking and I cracked the mystery of CommonDreams)
Does everyone writing here have free, quality health care?
Are they laying off schoolteachers in your state like they are in mine?
It’ll be fun to see the “embassy” deconstructed.
Embassy?
This is the Middle Eastern White House.
The thicker the walls of this news Embassy (site of real goverment) the thinner the support of the Iraqi’s and the rest of the world.
The thicker the walls, the further the embedded real government is going to be from the reality of this occupied country.
You can torture, kill and bomb as much as you like, but when you are wrong and will always be wrong.
I had read that there would a 5,000 military personnel capacity some time back. Perhaps that is one of the fortresses to which they intend to retreat, the so called “enduring” (but only temporary) air bases being the others. Meanwhile, Congress refuses to enact legislation to fund paper trails and audits of the computers that count most of the votes. There is no way to verify our votes have not been hacked which is exactly what has been happening. We the people cannot take back control of our own nation as long as the corporate powers may change the vote with impunity.
KEM PATRICK …i agree with you 150%…..the embassy was built for HALIBURTON and KBR….and house their hired DIPLOMATS…..they needed a comfortable place to dictate the new oil law……
Sooner or later the US embassy in Iraq will stage a reenactment of the US departure from Vietnam—the last imperialist hanging by one arm off the leg of the last chopper as it takes off from the burning roof and into dark history….Can it end any other way?
“Meet the new boss; same as the old boss!”
My heart goes out to the citizens of Iraq, and all they have suffered under US ocupation. IF I had my way, the entire current administration would be behind bars-and Iraq would be given back to the Iraqi people.
I can’t think of a more perfect symbol of American power - enormous, ugly, soulless, and pre-fab.
This ‘embassy’ is the last pathetic grasp at America’s short lived empire. Sure experts will argue that America is not seeking dominion over others, I disagree. Although there may be the will in the upper echelon of the American political and business community, there is not enough military capability to keep these ‘territories’ in line. Let’s face it, the new power is China, and it will be that way for the rest of our lives. We’ve gone and sold off our present and future in return for cheap toxic plastic crap. This ‘embassy’ will serve as the short lived defacto ‘moral authority’ in the middle east for a brief period, but will ultimately serve as the uniting symbol which hastens America’s decline.
#
KEM PATRICK April 24th, 2008 12:46 pm
“Sometimes I feel so alone, ____ but some here at C/D say I’m paranoid and if that’s so I’d never be alone. Opps there is another blogger now __ Whew.”
Just remember that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get ya.
Lobo Gris
When the Iraqi’s finally manage to kick us out of their country. And eventually they will get fed up with us like all countries do! They are going to have nice new building that the American taxpayer is still paying for! What moron thought this up???????
Jack37 , You write : “Sooner or later the US embassy in Iraq will stage a reenactment of the US departure from Vietnam ….Can it end any other way?”
The answer is sure it can.
US Embassy Tehran 1979,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
US Embassy Beirut 1983, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1983_U.S._Embassy_bombing
US Embassy Nairobi 1998,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_U.S._embassy_bombings
US Embassy Baghdad, 200?,
They will tell you that “they” hate America for their values of democracy and freedom, bla, bla, bla, but the defeat in Vietnam and all these other attacks were done perhaps because of America’s support for tyranny and big business rather than its support of people. The next story is yet to be written, but the outcome is as you say just the same; obvious as to the motive, and of course the perpetrators will be yet again “terrorist extremists linked to Al Qaeda”,(just a name linked to something you are trained to hate and not ask questions about) but that is why they build these things blast proof now. They know what they are doing, what they can expect and who realy wants them. 90 % of the Iraqi people want “all” American forces, civil and military, out of their country. Can you blame them? Only a fascist or a fool will not realise it is only a question of the date. The sooner the better because the longer it takes, the greater the suffering.
Even my wife’s cat hates me LOBO.
KEM PATRICK sez: “Is that $700 million to build that monstrosity correct? ___ I understood the cost so far was several billion, or did that include the price for the entire “Green Zone”?”
I believe the $740 million figure does not include the Raisinettes for the cineplex. Or Cheney’s cut.
That embassy looks hideous to me. I would hate to get a transfer there if I was a State Department worker. Trying to live there would be a nightmare.
Colonialism is a failed paradigm. But a huge success for Halliburton, KBR and the other contractors and their stockholders and executives.
I see more and more this ship has sailed. I would like to be an optimist as some of you guys seem to be. But, if we have no voice ,no power, to effect change I only see this country sliding off the abyss into a fascisct third world country. It will be our economic policys that do us in first. And maybe, that is a good thing in the long run. Let the monster known as the United States go down, become another Britain. Let China take over. Could they do much worse then we have done!
peaceman sez: “Does everyone writing here have free, quality health care?”
Why, yes … here in Canada.
Although the privateers are relentlessly chipping away at the edges of the system.
“Ozymandias” by Keats
I would add a statue of Jesus, similar in size and style to the Statue of Liberty and towering over the city, the tallest structure in Baghdad.
No, I would add four statues of Jesus, one at each corner of the building and each of them hundreds of feet high. One would show Jesus brandishing a sword; another statue would show Jesus, naked, on the cross. I would allow one corner to support a towering statue of Allah, also naked, but endowed with a woman’s genitals, and in the fourth corner a statue of George Bush. Let these people know for sure they have been conquered.
Better that my money go to commemorating the conquest of Baghdad than to starting a new war in Venezuela, Bush’s next stop. (After Iran.)
Goebbles sez: I know you do up in Canada. And the “Mother country” England, and most of western Europe. Slowly but surely they’re ready to “privatize” their systems too, following the US into the sewer.
dudleydoright: We Do Have The Power To Change Things Around. It is OUR LABOR, my friend. By a co-ordinated effort across this country and around the world, WE THE PEOPLE can do it! Unless we prefer subjagation and servitude by the ruling class, who rule ONLY because we let them!
They’ve done a fantastic job confusing the already bewildered people that wrong is right and night is day.
A week from today, join us on May First by honoring the longshorman on the west coast who are shuting down the ports from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. for one day to protest the occupation in Iraq.
Like Ben Franklin told us long ago. Oops! I forgot how it went, but in essence, if we are not willing to fight for liberty, we deserve neither freedom or security: words to that effect. In this day and age, add health care, livable pensions, decent working conditions, etc. etc, and freedom from “big brother.” The citizens have to want these things first.Maybe second. Could be self-respect comes first?
Ghawar;
A naked Allah? Man oh man, I can’t think of a way to piss off people in the mideast more than that idea would. Not torture, not occupation, not rape, nothing even comes close to how offensive the Muslim’s would find that idea. Quick, send an anonny email to al-Q or al-jaz and claim that you’ve seen the plans for these statues and they’re being built in Sodom NJ. The usa will be out of that country in a week…
I just now took a good look at that picture. Holy shit, that dump cost us $740 million, who in hell designed it? I’d heard it was supposed to be a show piece. It shows we’re friggin nuts.
Kem - “I’d heard it was supposed to be a show piece. It shows we’re friggin nuts.”
Now all we need, is for us Brits to commission a building resembling Buckingham Palace, to be built at Basra airport, and for a Viceroy to be appointed to Iraq, and we can start building a new empire.
Seriously, what were they thinking when they built it?
Kem,
I am with you. That is an ugly building. Actually from the outside it looks like a gulag.
Someday there will be a great movie entitled “Judgment in Baghdad.” Spencer Tracey will star as the judge of the International Court presiding at the trial of all the American war criminals, the ones George Bush will have pardoned, though he himself will have already taken his own life in this building which will have become his bunker. We might just have Cheney on trial, though - his sneer will hold out till the end. This is what hell looks like. This is the visible apparition of what these men are building for themselves, and it is not admirable, it is not beautiful, but it is all that they will be left with.
It should be, then, as it appears, a prison and a great weight on their souls. Behold what greed accomplishes - a great slab of concrete somewhere, anywhere, in isolation from the rest of mankind. Not America, not any country. Hell.
The insurgents should just wait until it opens and is occupied. Then all they have to do is watch as th whole thing collapses in on its poorly constructed self.
After they finish laughing, they can go home.
If history repeats itself, as some say, this thing will sit there while the locals work up a certain level of hostility and indignation and then will take it over. After all, it happened in Iran and Iraq is now an extension of Iran. We have put the Shiites in power and they have shown that they have standards
The building is neither a embassy or a fortress. It is an edifice to the glory of the war criminals mentioned above. Their names should be emblazoned on every corner of the monstrosity for posterity, a fitting legacy for the grand imperial visions of the Project for a New American Century.
Someone mentioned that it might be a good idea for those folks to live there. Really, not a bad idea at all, especially if the Iraqi citizens who have been forced to leave their homes or do not have anywhere left to call home hold a tribunal and dish out a little of the santioned torture that is so necessary for this so called ‘war on terror.’ Poetic justice?
KEM PATRICK said (#46): “Our largest trading partner is Canada. The American embassy there is a plain office building.___ Nothing special.”
Actually it too is fortified. It’s surrounded by a high steel fence, there are closely-spaced bollards all along the sidewalk, and it has a pop-up barrier built into the entryway. Also, it faces a T-intersection, which was rebuilt as a Y-intersection with more bollards on the new traffic island so that nobody could use the street as a runway to ram a vehicle into the building.
Our Defence Department, on the other hand, IS in a plain office building.
It’s only one office building in Canada. The Iraq monstrosity is 21 buildings on 104 acres. That’s almost a half mile square piece of land. And what do we trade with the Iraqis other than death.
… it’ll make a nice mausoleum, after we depart.
But I doubt that they’d keep the naked Mohammed statues
Hey Lucitanian,
Let’s publish a deck of cards…
William Clinton
General Wesley Clark
George H. W. Bush
General Colin Powell
General Norman Schwarzkopf
Elliott Abrams
Caspar Weinberger
Lt. Col. Oliver North
Henry Kissinger
Gerald Ford
Robert McNamara
General William Westmoreland
George W. Bush,
Richard Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice,
Paul Bremer
Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
John Yoo
Alberto Gonzalez,
Cofer Black
Erik Prince
General Boykin
Stephen Cambone
Maj. Gen Geoffrey Miller
Anthony Blair
The obscene amounts of money being tossed around for death and destruction and then this monstrous piece of architectural excreta–it makes one cringe and moan…Why? I hope it falls around the heads of the idiots who serve there when it’s a prison for the war criminals we indict bye-n-bye…..hahahahahahaha…..wait…they’re still in office…I’m losing my mind, man…it must be the electipon farce that’s droned on for so long has finally taken it’s toll…that little chipmunk smile of hers right after Shillary’s latest twist of the truth. EEEEEwwwww..cringe some more.
Huge, seriously ugly, over-budget, intrusive. A fitting monument. And WHO was the architect? Again, have you ever seen a monument so dog brown ugly?
It could be useful, though, as a place for our troops to gather safely as they are evacuated by helicopter.
Too bad John Wayne died, he’d save us.
Comment: claudius, CD is my one and only site that I use - mainly because of the lack of time. Today, I read an excellent letter in our local paper (Morning Call, Allentown, PA.). As usual,(if I can find a phone number) I called the author and thanked him for writing it. Actually, I had to leave that message as he was out of town. But, as I never fail to do, I also recommended commondreams.org as being a good site for us like-minded individuals who think nothing of criticizing our “president and his commander, VP: Evil Dick Cheney”.
Some say I’m vitriolic; I guess that could be true. God! how I want those guys impeached, indicted, tried, convicted, and punished. Am I asking too much?
OK, I will now get off my soapbox. . . sorry.
jclientelle , You asked, And WHO was the architect?
The firm is Berger Devine Yaeger Inc, and last year they went so far as to post the plans of the project on their web site, until the state department asked them to remove them for the security of their employees.
Absolutely brillient, aren’t they?
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C4BB4F1D-6E48-4070-81B7-E2F0EEA655CF.htm
Although the detailed plans are now removed you can still get a good idea of the monstrous place from the drawings at:
http://eyeball-series.org/usemb-iq/usemb-iq.htm
I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough just how blast proof it really is.
Thanks Astiresias your suggestion to read the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (not Keats BTW). You’re right, the irony suits.
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
As an adjunct to the US Embassy fiasco/ugly monstrosity an article on how this is an example of the superfluous waste that is bankrupting America…
http://www.alternet.org/story/83555/
“The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke”
By Chalmers Johnson, Le Monde diplomatique. Posted April 26, 2008.
60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the economy.
To really secure the embassy, it should be ringed by gargoyles modeled on Cheney and his scowl. The horrid faces would be puking oil into a flaming moat.