Has The ISG Addressed The Elephant in Iraq aka: The American Embassy?

[leftchick]

nothing symbolizes US Occupation more than this monstrosity. So, has the Iraq Study Group mentioned it?



Construction cranes loom above the site of the new U.S. Embassy being built in Baghdad. The embassy will sit on 104 acres, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and two-thirds the acreage of Washington’s National Mall.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12319798/#storyContinued

New U.S. Embassy in Iraq cloaked in mystery


BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.

The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome.

“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project.

<snip>

“The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country,” the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Of course not. It was the "Stall the Withdrawal" Report.

NGU.

[Atman]

2. This entire fiasco is about this stupid fucking embassy

That is why we're "staying the course." We're not leaving until that embassy is self-sustaining. Period. It has nothing to do with oil or security or democracy...we've spent a quazillion dollars on this thing (make your checks out to Halliburton and Bechtel, please) and we're not just walking away and leaving it. No way. This is the ONLY reason Bush has been so stubborn. They thought they'd be able to finish up the embassy quietly and in relative peace, but they're hosed now and have no choice but to pretend they're fighting an "insurgency" when in fact our troops are there simply to protect the construction.

.

[leftchick]

4. I agree

and very well said. :thumbsup:

I happen to think that is where they hope to control the Oil Contracts.

[Demeter]

3. These People Can Only Handle So Much "Reality" At a Time

when you do something at the point of a gun, you don't do a very good job. Or thorough. Besides, it wasn't in their briefing....the holidays cut them short....any of a million excuses can fit here.

[Jacobin]

5. It will be overrun within two years

I'd bet a day's labor on that.

[seafan]

6. This embassy is due for completion in June 2007. Convenient isn't it?

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


So Jimmy Baker and Co. will obfuscate and tap dance and * will stonewall and lash out about...

stay the course/"we've *never* been about staying the course",

more troops/less troops,

timeline/no timeline,

talks with Iran and Syria/refusal to hold talks with Iran and Syria,

failure/"Not A Failure",


And more people will die.



But, JUST LONG ENOUGH for the occupants to abandon the Green Zone and move into this shiny new, heavily fortified, mini city on the banks of the Tigris River in 6 months.

[leftchick]

7. a mere coincidence

:sarcasm:

:grr: