Just to give you an idea on how HUGE the new US Embassy in Baghdad is:

[Cooley Hurd]

Outlined in RED is the new US Embassy. Outlined in BLUE is the Iraqi Parliament Building.

Like Billy says:

It's HUUUUUGE!

OUR tax dollars at work.:eyes:

[spindoctor]

1. Nice comparison. Let there be no question about who runs things in Baghdad.

And let there be no question about how long we intend to stay there.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. My point exactly...

They built a palace FIT for an ENDLESS occupation.:thumbsdown:

[Mend]

4. well Thank God we didn't use the money to help the poor, the sick, the

suffering, the roads, the hospitals, the disabled vets in our country or theirs for that matter...nothing I would rather have than a giant mall in Baghdad.

[Quantess]

41. or rebuilding the Gulf Coast,

or fixing our decaying bridges, or....

[roguevalley]

34. nice building the Iraqis get when they whip our ass out of there

someday.

[seemslikeadream]

2. And we're leaving when?

:shrug:

[Cooley Hurd]

5. As long as a Repuglican sits in OUR White House...

...NEVAH!

Vote Democratic. Thank you.;)

[seemslikeadream]

10. No End In Sight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGPp-WhgEXE&eurl=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3jk4kJG1Sg&eurl=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2XlEoiqX2U&eurl=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L5f9qlqBRw&eurl=

[bvar22]

29. Only ONE Democrat supports leaving Iraq.

Hillary/Obama/Edwards support leaving combat troops in Iraq INDEFINITELY!

[superkia]

32. Man V has been on cable allot lately, I cant get enough of it!

I agree with your comment but you wont see many people agreeing with you because it will make the people that vote for those candidates realize that the blood will then be on their hands! Everyone hates the war but when it comes to primary time, lets see who everyone votes for, war candidate or not? After being on this site for just a little time I realize that the media has a huge impact on even the people who say the media is controlled. It's pure insanity!

[bvar22]

35. I couldn't agree with you more.

:hi:
I've been here a long time, and there have always been some who seem mesmerized by the Media mythology, but lately the insane cults of Personality over Principle seem to have metastasized.

How can anyone who seeks out DU, and claims to be a Liberal support anyone other than Kucinich?
This is an election for the President of the US, not the high school Homecoming Queen.

[Rhiannon12866]

38. And which candidate might that be?

One pic speaks a thousand words...:patriot:

[bvar22]

39. Great Picture!!!

Thanks.
It is now my desktop.
:patriot:

[Rhiannon12866]

40. So glad that you liked it! It's a particular favorite of mine...

I originally searched for it to post on a thread on the ABC poll, which DK won, but he wasn't even in the pic that they showed, cut him off altogether...:grr:

But another DUer said that the entire pic was in the NYT, so I finally found it, but it wasn't easy... *sigh*:-(

Rhiannon:hi:

[leftchick]

36. I am sorry to disagree CH but.....

HRC and BO are only calling for "combat troops" to withdraw, and speak of continued "US security interest" protection by US troops for, like, forever! Do not look for anything to change by way of the US occupation if the democratic "top tier" is elected.

[treestar]

6. Geez, that is sad

I wonder how much $$ Halliburton and/or its ilk made building that.

[Cooley Hurd]

8. They made TONS because they used slaves to build it...

[sam sarrha]

11. they kidnapped people from many 3d world countries thinking they were going to other countries..they

didnt even give them shoes to work in, many got seriously injured on construction sites and were simply sent home and dumped penniless and crippled without medical care

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. All I see...

Is a damned nice target with water access to make the eventual evacuation somewhat easier.

[Olney Blue]

9. Where is this in relationship to the Green Zone? Is this it?

[alfredo]

17. Here we go

It's only a small part of Emerald City.

[Olney Blue]

21. Thanks, afredo.

That's very helpful. I didn't realize the airport was so relatively close to the Green Zone. So, that's the stretch of deadly road that has been the site of many an IED.

Nothing like a map to put things in perspective.

[alfredo]

22. yeah, we don't want to turn out like that beauty queen.

[Booster]

12. Well, thank God they didn't use any of this money to rebuild

New Orleans, where all those disgruntled, grundgy, poor people live. (and in case it's needed - :sarcasm: )

[RC]

14. Didn't New Orleans LA have a Dem Mayor and Governor back when

Katrina waded ashore? I wonder how much that had to do with the carnage there?

[Booster]

19. Oh, it had a lot to do with it. Still does. Haley Barbour (sp?) who

IS a repug has received a lot of help for Mississippi, but the other Gulf states, and especially the New Orleans area has received not nearly enough. I also believe there is a plan for corporations to get their ducks in a row and grab the spots in New Orleans that they have their eye on. As soon as the prime real estate it bought up by them, then the repugs will go in there and fix the levees like they should have been fixed in the first place. The poor lose all the way around, while the rich reap the rewards. Our country is just fucked.

[DrBlix]

25. Allawi Lobbies for al-Maliki's Replacement Barbour

Allawi Lobbies for al-Maliki's Replacement Barbour - as in the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour - Griffith and Rogers has close ties to the White House. The lobbying on behalf of Allawi ...
.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13926357 -

[DrBlix]

26. Re: Allawi Lobbies for al-Maliki's Replacement Barbour

Mississippi Governors PR company.. LOL
===..
ALLAWI HIRES LOBBYIST GROUP FOR U.S. CAMPAIGN AGAINST MALIKI
.
<[Is this the same Allawi? When the truth comes out there isn't a lobbyist or PR firm that can erase this: [br />=====
Allawi shot inmates in cold blood, say witnesses     
.
By Paul McGeough
Sidney Morning Herald
July 17, 2004
.    
Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.
.
They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death"
.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/4/5266

[peacetalksforall]

13. Where will Cheney's office be (when he's visiting from his home base in Dakar)?

[yella_dawg]

15. The real irony is:

The corruption in the contracting process resulted in a complex that may never be functional. Seemingly, it's even worse than the Police Academy that had raw sewage leaking from the ceiling.

[vickitulsa]

18. I've been following this story and have heard the same thing.

Apparently, if Halliburton ever did know how to build something right, they've long since abandoned all good construction practices. I wouldn't expect any facilities in that absurdly huge compound to function worth a damn.

All the more reason to call the enormous financial outlay unjustifiable.

In spite of the crappy construction, however, I suspect large numbers of loyal U.S. government employees will nonetheless be expected to man this post for decades, along with all the other bases of operations the current administration has had built across Iraq and the region....

[tridim]

16. Is that the same spot Bush "shocked and awed"?

I guess it's easier to just raze the real estate with bombs than to kick out the residents and bulldoze.

[smalll]

20. Huge, but still modest by some standards -

The compound will cost $592m and will cover 104 acres of land, about the size of the Vatican, making it the biggest and most expensive U.S. embassy on earth. It will include 27 separate buildings and house about 615 Americans behind bomb-proof walls. The U.S. ambassador will live in a high-security home on the compound reported to fill 16,000 square feet. His deputy will live in a more modest 9,500 sq ft. They will have a pool, gym and communal living areas, and the embassy will have its own power and water supplies.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=8368

What that means is that the homes of the ambassador and his deputy combined will STILL be smaller than John Edwards' house!

[Lochloosa]

23. And you have a point?

[knitter4democracy]

24. Those are both bigger than the White House, I think.

Oh, my bad. Nope. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_house#Layout_and_facts

Still, they're bigger than the White House is above ground, I think. It's smaller than it looks on tv.

[The Wielding Truth]

27. On the GOP side,

former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the founder of venture capital and investment firm Bain Capital, owns three homes. Arizona Sen. John McCain also owns real estate worth millions of dollars.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17043005/

[electron_blue]

28. Everything's bigger in Texas! erm, I mean Iraq.

[FloridaJudy]

30. They should have contracted it out to Disney

Since they're already basing their Foreign Policy on fairy tales.

[Desertrose]

31. Typically American.....

the bigger the better.

[ThomWV]

33. I'd like to see the "Green Zone" boxed in for comparison too

[Yael]

37. It is in Post #17

The embassy is at the split of the river.

[nuxvomica]

42. Do we even actually own this thing or did we build to lease?

I'm wondering if it's even in government hands or do we lease it from some multi-billion-dollar corporation that didn't even exist 4 years ago.

P.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQO0v_HEGU0

[Rhiannon12866]

43. That's a good question.

If we leave, who owns this monstrosity? Just another example of our tax dollars at work, but not in NOLA or Minnesota or Ground Zero...:grr: