""George W's palace" rising from the banks of the Tigris"

[understandinglife]

In the Chaos of Iraq, One Project Is on Target: A Giant US Embassy

By Daniel McGrory
The Times on Line UK

Wednesday 03 May 2006

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.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050306D.shtml

Couple that with all the hardened, massive, strategic bases and what you have is 21st Century American Imperialism.

Yes, they have no intention of leaving Iraq.

Yes, they have every intention of spreading neoconster American imperialism to Iran.

Are you seeing what your America is building in Iraq on Fox, CNN, the front page of the NYT or WaPo ...? You should be, given that you and your yet to be born great-great-grandchildren are paying for it.


Never Forget: George W. Bush willfully violated National Security to cover-up his willful launch of a war of aggression and illegal occupation of Iraq.

[Richard D]

1. A good friend of mine . . .

. . . once explained to me, with examples and facts that I don't remember, how the current administration follows an unbroken lineage back to the Roman empire. Seems somewhat plausible now.

[tocqueville]

2. at least you know what your tax money is used for...

U.S. soldiers prepare to swim at a pool run by the Australian military at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, April 9, 2006. Top U.S. and coalition commanders and their staffs now enjoy an array of modern conveniences and amenities across the command center. (AP Photo/Antonio Castaneda)

[junkiebrewster]

7. Do they hand out tramp stamps.....

Is that part of basic training now?

Not that I'd ever turn away a tramp stamp!!!!!

[pinniped]

18. That looks like a firewire symbol.

[earth mom]

19. That looks like the Official Baghdad "Sandals"...ain't that right?!

So that's how they're getting 18 year old kids to enlist.

:puke:

[otohara]

3. When Will We See Pictures of Our Shiny New Palace?

Will Condi, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Bush & Cheney go down and cut the ribbon? This is disgusting and they wonder why Iraqi's are mad as hell.

[Sequoia]

8. It's time for Joshua to step in.

No palace for you dictator.

[Synnical]

4. This is obscene, really

From an earlier AP article:

http://tinyurl.com/n2rk2

. . .

Iraq's interim government transferred the land to U.S. ownership in October 2004, under an agreement whose terms were not disclosed.

"Embassy Baghdad" will dwarf new U.S. embassies elsewhere, projects that typically cover 10 acres. The embassy's 104 acres is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall.

Original cost estimates ranged over $1 billion, but Congress appropriated only $592 million in the emergency Iraq budget adopted last year. Most has gone to a Kuwait builder, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, with the rest awarded to six contractors working on the project's "classified" portion — the actual embassy offices.

. . .

It will have its own water wells, electricity plant and wastewaster-treatment facility, "systems to allow 100 percent independence from city utilities," says the report, the most authoritative open source on the embassy plans.

[theHandpuppet]

11. But we can't rebuild NOLA

Funny, that.

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Funny, in a real nauseating kind of way.

[roguevalley]

5. well, when Baghdad falls and we run with our tail between our legs

the insurgency will have a great facility.

[BurtWorm]

6. Why isn't this being covered in the US media?

:eyes:

Why aren't Democrats in Congress and running for Congress making a big deal out of this?

:eyes:

Why isn't this being chewed over even in the left blogosphere?

:wtf:

[leftchick]

10. I have seen it on several leftie sites

as for the M$M and our supposed leaders in congress? :eyes:

[Synnical]

17. USA Today reported on it in April & LTTE on Apr 30

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-04-30-letters-us-embassy_x.htm

$592M U.S. Embassy sends wrong message to the people of Iraq

Posted 4/30/2006 9:17 PM ET

It was my understanding that, in part, we invaded Iraq to overturn Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, which manifested itself in part in the building of huge palaces, constructed with complete contempt for the poverty of so many of the Iraqi people, and endowed with expensive amenities that were also largely denied to the average Iraqi.

Now we have a U.S. Embassy compound rising up that is a palace in its own right and has every amenity — including "its own power generation and water treatment plants ... (while) the average Baghdad home has electricity only four hours a day" ("Giant U.S. Embassy rising in Baghdad," News, April 19).

Moreover, this $592 million complex is the only major project being built on time. What does this say to the Iraqi public? Could it not be pointed out by them that one dictatorship is apparently being replaced by another, whose arrogant display of wealth and power is being brazenly erected on their land?

I think this is one of the worst messages that could be sent by the United States at this time. Surely, modesty, restraint and consideration are in order at a time when Iraqis are being slaughtered every day in their own capital and still lack adequate water, energy supplies and sewage facilities.

What signal are we sending?

Wendy Read Wertz, Bloomington, Ind.

[Initech]

9. I bet come the Iraqi civil war, this is the first thing destroyed...

[mod mom]

12. Maybe the Hague can hold trials there to show the Iraqi people what real

justice is about.

[understandinglife]

21. Agree. Though, I think the most important Tribunal is the one "We ...

... the People" hold, right here in America - the one where every neoconster, and all their Congressional, corporate and media enablers, are held accountable.

Nothing less will be required to restore American credibility and legitimacy.


Peace.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

13. sovereignity is a funny thing.

"Let Freedom Reign"
:eyes:

[Az_lefty]

14. this is just like the megalomania of Hussein...

chicken little is no different and the Iraqi's know it.

[BrklynLiberal]

16. Kick

[NobleCynic]

20. I really don't mind that the Administration is so evil...

I just wish they were better at it. Talk about losing the hearts and minds.

[Synnical]

22. You don't mind?

Woa, that's odd.

[NobleCynic]

24. There is something fascinating about our darker natures

But only if it is a competent evil. Incompetent evil is just boring.

Think of it this way. Would you rather have an honest idiot in charge or a diabolical genius in charge? With the genius, you at least know who to blame. At my heart I truly hope that this administration knows what it is doing and is doing it out of pure greed and malice. The idea that they are doing it out of just plain stupidity depresses me. As much as I may hate him, I can respect an evil man. An stupid man however, is only worthy of scorn. What I'm afraid of is that we have a stupid and evil man in charge. Worst of both worlds.

Stuff like this convinces me that they are just plain dumb. Like I said, depressing.

(Edited for grammar)

[savemefromdumbya]

23. Taxpayer's money being wasted!

[mike_c]

25. but-- but it was SADDAM who built palaces while Iraq crumbled...

...wasn't it? :sarcasm: