U.S. embassy in Baghdad: 'Fortress America'

[Botany]

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/08/us_embassy_in_baghdad_fortress.html


The United States has built a "fortress'' in Baghdad in the new American embassy, a building which speaks
volumes about the way the U.S. views the situation there, according to a critic of the new diplomatic
headquarters writing in Foreign Policy magazine.

The largest, most expensive embassy ever built will be completely isolated from the nation in which is
centered, writes historian Jane Loeffer in the September/October issue.

"Walled off and completely detached from Baghdad, it conveys a devastating message about America’s
global outlook,'' she reports.

"The United States has designed an embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for
their future,” Loeffler says in her article, “Fortress America.”

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. It looks like a fricking castle.

Welcome to the 12th century.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Someday it will be a burned out shell, soot above every window

frame.

[izzie]

3. And we the tax payers paid for it. What a black eye.

Unless we get rid of this world wide military put down on every one we are just asking for a fall. Just tell me one other country that has not paid for this type stuff and I may think in another vain. My grandchildren will be seeing the blow back from this until they are as old as I am now and I am in my 70's. It will stop but at what cost?

[seafan]

4. Fortress America

Fortress America, August 29, 2007



AP

.....

"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.

.....

"

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