Baghdad anger at Bush's undiplomatic palace

[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 the biggest embassy on earth? Irritation grows as residents deprived of airconditioning 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 cafes, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects' claims that it will be visible from space and cover an area larger than Vatican City. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it. While families 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. The design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide 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 the bill for the embassy was $US592million ($772million). The heavily guarded 42ha site - which will have a 3m-thick perimeter wall - has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Locals are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff.

Diplomats, after roughing it in Saddam's abandoned palaces, should have every comfort in their new home. The plans are rumoured to include the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for functions. A State Department official said the size reflected the "massive amount of work still facing the US and our commitment to see it through".


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19019060-601,00.html

[pinniped]

1. Has anyone ever seen a picture of this joint?

?

[leftchick]

6. only the construction of it

it isn't due to be finished "on time" until 2007.

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,295185,00.jpg

Building work at the 104-acre complex, known locally as 'George W's palace', is supposed to be secret, but it is impossible to disguise the cranes dominating the Baghdad skyline

[pinniped]

12. Thanks.

The Romans used to build temples and bathhouses on their newly acquired territories.

If they were around today, they would build embassies.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pab Sungenis]

22. 104 acres?

Does anyone know how large Disneyland is? 160 acres.

Think about it. This is George Bush's Magic Kingdom!

[NuttyFluffers]

31. Heh, "George Bush's Magic Kingdom"

"The Most Miserable Place on Earth"
:evilgrin:

[Pab Sungenis]

37. Might make a good meme/nickname

for this incredible boondoggle.

Coming soon...EuroBush!

[wordpix]

39. so THAT's where our $500 billion has gone in Iraq

[madmark]

56. George Washington warned us to avoid foriegn entanglements;

what the fuck is this monstosity we are pissing away our money on?

[ShortnFiery]

43. We should have LOTS and LOTS of pictures of this disgusting

Industrial Complex. After all our hard earned American tax payer dollars are paying for this piece of shit that will be turned into confetti as soon as the Iraqis kick us out of THEIR Country.

I don't remember my representative tell me that we, the American Taxpayer have to fund the Neo-Cons delusional wet dreams.

This place is a prime target of opportunity that will be bombed as ever damn opportunity.

What the hell's wrong with our Congress?
Stop this insanity!

[cassiepriam]

2. BushCo can do anything when they really want to....

If it has to do with power, money, or oil they are all over it big time. Nothing else is even on their radar screen.

[robbedvoter]

3. I bet the bathroom has a Saddam mosaic - they're THAT petty!

Careful what you whish, Bushes!

[cassiepriam]

4. I am not too happy about the palace either since I am paying for it....

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. It's not an embassy...it's a NeoCon territorial capital.

[slay]

24. Bingo

What a terrible price this country is paying for this terrible disasterous neo-con experiment. :( :( :(

[karlrschneider]

7. K & R...saw links to this around the internets.

...
:kick:

[icymist]

8. Gee. A palace where the new 'overlords' can escape the 'little' people.

A place where 'beautiful minds' won't get polluted by reality. I'd bet the thinking behind this is, "If Saddam's palace's didn't upset the general population into revolt, then ours surely won't!"
:sarcasm:

[hobbit709]

10. There will come a time

When the Doors' "Five To One" might happen over there.

[babylonsister]

11. No one gets out alive? Oy. nt

[babylonsister]

9. I'm glad Baghdad's angry; I am, too. nt

[Rose Siding]

13. Silly Iraqis, looking for fairness.

Freedom isn't free. In America we know that just because our money is spent with a seemingly sinister and self-defeating set of priorities, we're still the ones who coined the phrase.

We get better at it all the time! /sarcasm

snip>
Congressional Priorities: $700 Million for ‘Railroad to Nowhere,’ $173 Million for Stopping Mass Murder

The Senate is expected to approve a nearly $109 billion spending bill today. The legislation provides some useful insight into the priorities of our current Congress.

The bill includes $700 million for the “railroad to nowhere“:

The project, which was added to a $106.5 billion emergency defense spending bill in the Senate, would relocate a Gulf Coast rail line inland, to higher ground. Never mind that the hurricane-battered line was just repaired at a cost of at least $250 million. Or that at $700 million, the project championed by Mississippi’s two US senators is being called the largest “earmark” ever.

Meanwhile, a paltry $173 million has been appropriated for peacekeeping efforts in Darfur, where violence is “horrendously bad and worsening” according to the U.N.’s top humanitarian official.

After three years of genocide — 400,000 dead, 2.5 million driven from their homes, razed villages, rape campaigns, and mass starvation — our government still doesn’t get it. So much for “Never Again.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1091607

[6000eliot]

60. Silly Iraqis, thinking it was actually about them!

[TheWatcher]

14. I'm surprised there isn't more outrage at home over this

And even more outrage at DU.

This is a most Brazen Display of what these people are about.

Just THINK.

They cannot rebuild Iraq, They cannot seem to supply our soldiers with proper equipment and Body Armor, but they can go balls to the wall with a modern age Babylon?

This is a perfect illustration of the extent of the corruption and pure evil of this government.

A living monument to what this country has become.

We suck. Big time.

This government may not be up there with some of the most notorious regime's in history yet, but I don't see how any thinking person can disagree that is has the POTENTIAL to surpass them all if it is given the chance.

There is NOTHING the NeoCons will not sink to.

And I am becoming more convinced if they cannot take over the world, they are perfectly content to destroy it if they can't have it outright.

They need to be stopped.

Legally and Peacefully as Malloy would say.

But I'm beginning to wonder if that is even possible.

[Lochloosa]

21. TheWatcher...why should there be anger at home about this....

Where, other than at DU have you seen this reported?

On Edit: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

[TheWatcher]

29. That's really the point isn't it?

If it isn't being reported here it should be. What confuses me is why you think I should be questioned on why there should be more outrage here.

There SHOULD be more outrage. It SHOULD be spread far and wide.

It isn't and that is a problem.

There couldn't be much more of an in your face Fuck You to the entire world than this monstrosity they are bulding on the backs of this most criminal act they have committed against this country that was no threat to us, and we never should have invaded.

Or maybe we should look on it in awe, and say "Wow, look what they are building!" :shrug:

[Sugar Smack]

54. Well put, TheWatcher. This is a HUGE "fuck you" to the

rest of the world. A HUGE "Try and stop us. Why aren't you stopping us?" I'm feeling like I'm going to explode, here.

:grr: :nuke:

[wordpix]

40. how true---I just learned of it right here, right now---I am OUTRAGED

[Nihil]

34. Remind me again ...

... how much world news does the average American get to see?

From my memory of visits to the US, the news programmes spend
longer on a missing dog story in the host city than they do
on natural disasters or terrorist attacks outside of the US
borders (much less a story that might reflect badly upon the
US Administration).

DUers are generally well-informed but they are sadly not that
representative of Americans in general - hence little surprise
that this obscenity isn't being discussed. Even your Senators
and Congressmen show little interest in "the outside world",
prefering to take their briefings straight from the White House.

[tanyev]

35. Proof that the things they REALLY want to accomplish do get done.

[Sugar Smack]

55. I sent a link to BuzzFlash.

[Daphne08]

58. Don't forget New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

[tabasco]

15. After Saddam Hussein is tried and punished ...

we should send Bush to Iraq to stand trial.

Remember when the brain-dead republicans told us they would be buiding statues of Bush :rofl:

Bush and his illegal war have killed more Iraqis than Saddam ever dreamed of.

[0007]

16. Argh!!

:redbox:They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening : George Orwell

[antonialee839]

17. Fear not folks, this is just part of Bush's humble foreign policy plan.

[whathappened]

20. jusy maybe

the dumb shit is going to move there when the heat here gets to hot , now you would'nt want our very own king george to live like the poor folks would you , these ass wipes have gotten my blod just boiling over the years , and some you talk to just think what this little shit head is doing to the world is just fine and dandee to them , have no mercy on the people of this earth , we will surley die , if you want king george will help you die faster

[Canuckistanian]

27. What was it he said about "nation building"?

Ah, yes, here it is...

BUSH OPPOSES NATION BUILDING... "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."

Bush/Gore 2000 Presidential Debate
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/debates/transcripts/u221003.html

[VegasWolf]

19. Grand Opening - June 2007 - Neocon World!! nt

[Pastiche423]

23. The cost of this monstrosity

should be taken out of the pocket of every NeoCon and person that voted for the invasion of Iraq.

[Olney Blue]

25. I give it a year, if it ever makes it up.

[RedEarth]

26. Another article about "George W's palace" & "super bases" for US military

The embassy takes in 21 buildings, including six apartment buildings; power generator, water source and purification plant; a recreation building with swimming pool, gym and food court; five high-security entrances plus an emergency entrance/exit.

It is, to use a phrase popular with the Bush backers a while ago and less widely used now, the embassy of an empire. Expressing the deepest aspirations of the United States at this moment in history, it's kind of a cross between Caesar Augustus and Donald Trump. It's also a clear statement -- a literally concrete statement -- that the United States plans to be a dominant presence in Iraq for a long time

.........

When you don't have a policy, you can at least have a palace. Especially when the biggest embassy in the world will be escorted by some of the biggest military bases in the world.

Four U.S. "superbases" are planned for Iraq, and Newsweek recently described the furthest along: Balad Air Force base, 15 square miles with separate neighborhoods for different services and private contractors, an indoor golf course and a full range of fast-food options. According to The Nation, another superbase, al-Asad, has two bus routes.

It is the official U.S. position that all this is temporary, and Newsweek quotes spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson explaining, "What we have in Iraq are 'contingency bases,' intended to support our operations in Iraq on a temporary basis until (Operation Iraqi Freedom) is complete." But the magazine also quotes Air Force Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of Balad, that "It's safe to say Balad will be here for a long time."

http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1146617759317880.xml&coll=7

[NYC]

62. Indoor golf course?

Who needs an indoor golf course?

Nobody. Nobody needs an indoor golf course. Especially when that golf course is paid for by U.S. citizens.

[daleo]

28. They better build a big helicopter pad on the roof

Because one day that will get a real workout.

[arewenotdemo]

30. It will, indeed!

The fuckwits in charge (and the Cheerleader-in-Chief, specifically) know NOTHING of history.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Bush and his lackeys are rubbing Iraqis noses in the fact they overthrown

Iraq, seized the power, and can dominate Iraqis as long as they want, and there's absolutely NOTHING anyone there can do about it.

That complex is totally uneccessary, and the bases they've erected in other towns are wrong, too. _Bush is strutting, and boasting. A temple devoted to greed, and the worship of raw power over helpless people. Shabby, embarrassing.

He damned well knows he is obligated morally to help Iraq's battered, bullied, tormented, devastated citizens FIRST, and get it done long before he should ever dream of putting up new U.S. buildings.

I hope they can get the message through to _Bush that Iraq IS their country, after all. It's time someone told the bastard "NO."

[Stockholm]

33. I always thought foreign governments

were allotted space by a government to build embassies on?

[atomic-fly]

36. The new Target!

This is typical of this administration. It is outragous to the
level headed bunch, but quite the norm for the neocons.
I am repulsed by it and ashamed of my nation for this kind
of action.It never ends with this bunch.

[Hissyspit]

38. The new Targert or the new target?

Both, it seems.

[wordpix]

42. good one! I think they're running out of space in the Green Zone

[atomic-fly]

45. what's targert mean?

[Hissyspit]

46. Typo

[Marie26]

41. They better watch out

Or that palace might be stormed pretty soon.

[wordpix]

44. i just sent this to KO and asked him to do a story -funny how Australian

press had the article but M$M here doesn't have a thing. Thank god for DU.

[Judi Lynn]

47. They may suspect American citizens would be ripping hacked off

if they knew how grabby they plan to get in Iraq, and how much money has been sunk in this project, how ostentatious it is, and how much has been withheld from repairing the damage done to Iraqis to contribute to this outrageous, unneccessary Neo-Con Dream expense.

The Iraqis are still living without repairs to all their infrastructure. They STILL lack even the most meager alottments of electricity, and minimally usable water, and work on hospitals and schools has simply fallen by the wayside.

[magellan]

48. 104 acres?! 21 buildings?!?!

Swimming pool? Gymnasium? Tennis courts? Swank club? CINEMA?

What need is there for a permanent self-contained fortress like this in a country where "freedom is on the march"??

$500 million -- OUR money!! -- into what amounts to a palatial target, the scale of which is exceeded only by the dimwitted arrogance of its masterminds in the US government.

How many Iraqis are enjoying employment due to this little project? I'll tell you: NONE. A Kuwaiti firm is in charge and they're bringing foreigners in to handle the construction.

I'm still trying to learn if the land was bought from the Iraqis outright, leased...or "liberated".

:wtf: :wtf:

If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention!!

[ShortnFiery]

49. Beyond Specter feigning anger, is there NOT any other honorable

republican who'd be willing to have some serious HEARINGS on this topic?

[Peter Frank]

50. Oh - I'm Outraged all Right...

...but not surprised.

[Sapere aude]

51. When we take over the White House we should give to the Iraqis

Someone will crash a couple of planes into it if we don't.

[Vinca]

52. Replacing Sadam's palace with one for King George. nt

[0007]

53. From the same article

Mr. Bush may also have in mind the negative lessons learned from his father's administration. Had the latter told his in-house experts that he could not really listen to coalitions, the feelings of the Europeans, and the resolutions of the U.N. when a wounded killer was still in Baghdad free to murder thousands of innocents and threaten the general peace, then he would have stayed president until 1996, and things would now be far better in the Middle East. His "moderate" and "in-the-know" advisers likewise later assured the elder Bush that he could ignore prior promises, raise taxes, and please everyone. Instead, he pleased no one and turned a potential landslide reelection into an embarrassing defeat to his moral inferior.

Playing by all the rules, listening to all the conventional wisdom, worrying about making a single false step, all that may win you the much sought after bride of world opinion as it loses your soul — and far worse for your people.

So, Mr. President, listen to Hippocleides and try to keep on dancing.

[RedG1]

57. from the Republ-Dope

to the Republi-Pope...

will he too wear $600 red Prada loafers?

[lovuian]

59. Its going to be a long hot summer for Baghdad

It doesn't look like we are leaving... does it

[number6]

61. your tax dollars at work

:hide:..........:banghead:

[Sugar Smack]

63. kick

[Sugar Smack]

64. It's in Buzzflash today!