In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy

[cal04]

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?
Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call “George W’s palace” rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects’ claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town. Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that the bill for the embassy was $592 million (£312 million). The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site — which will have a 15ft thick perimeter wall — has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Local residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff and is busing them in from a temporary camp nearby.

more with a picture of it
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2162249,00.html

[Oak2004]

1. Is it so that this time we have a much better

roof for the evacuation helecopters to land on?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. K&R

[Amonester]

3. Buca...HUGH11.. Baghdad, Romania

"Although he was executed in 1989, Ceaucescu has left a landmark building that is here to stay and to remind Bucharest of its grim recent history. For a few years, the Romanians were undecided about what to do with it, but the building was saved from demolition and is open to the public. It is a must-see, to better understand the actual situation, and also to see where megalomaniacs can lead to."

http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/europe/ceaucescuspalace.shtml




This is how it should (must) end:

[Amonester]

4. When in Biloxi...

A sign was posted on the stairs of a home in Pascagoula, Miss., that was destroyed by Katrina.



:banghead: :grr: :grr: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: