Reply #4: Fortress America [View All]

[seafan]

Fortress America, August 29, 2007



AP

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"The embassy in Baghdad is designed to be completely self-sufficient. American diplomats will have their own shopping market, movie theater, gym, and dry cleaners,'' Loeffler reports. "The embassy will be encased by 15-foot-thick blast walls, house a special defense force, and operate its own electrical, sewage, and water treatment plants. There will be no need to interact with Iraqis for anything.

This is a strong departure from the way America’s embassies historically have been built, Loeffler says. Traditionally, U.S. embassies were designed to further interaction with the community. Diplomats visited with local officials at their offices, shopped at local businesses, and mixed with the general public.

"Diplomacy is not the sort of work that can be done by remote control,” Loeffler argues. “It takes direct contact to build good-will for the United States and promote democratic values.”

The Baghdad embassy is just the largest and most drastic example of a growing trend in U.S. diplomacy, Loeffler says. Since the bombings of the U.S. missions in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the U.S. State Department has been aggressively replacing obsolete or vulnerable embassies with standardized, look-a-like embassies as opposed to the individualized and open structures of years past. Fourteen such compounds were built last year and long-range plans call for 76 more.

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We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization, and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."

George W. Bush, March 19, 2003