Screw the locals, we’re building a city in a city — for us!
In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy-News-World-Iraq-TimesOnline — This is a real eye-roller and seeing some of the recent embassies we’ve done (such as the one in Stockholm) should also be a real eye-sore too. Hey taxpayers, how are you doing?
Oh, and why hasn’t the big media been covering this story? The thing appears to be half finished already. Shhh, it’s a secret.
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.
found by Mister Justin
“two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in”
Eight thousand staff!?! For an embassy? Considering that nearly zero Iraqis get to come to the US, they aren’t going to be processing visas, that’s for sure.
I imagine that’s significantly bigger than our old one in Saigon.
Here’s a good quote:
“The security measures being installed are described as extraordinary. US officials are preparing for the day when the so-called green zone, the fortified and sealed-off compound where international diplomats and Iraq’s leaders live and work, is reopened to the rest of the city’s residents, and American diplomats can retreat to their own secure area. ”
It would than seem logical to build a compound big enough to supplement some of the functions that the ‘green zone’ currently offers. Doug, that 8,000 staff will include a slew of non-US foreign diplomats, and I’m assuming if the project will be this big that a lot of the Middle East operations will be shifted into one large building.
Here’s another:
“Iraqi politicians opposed to the US presence protest that the scale of the project suggests that America retains long-term ambitions here.”
They’re really going out on a limb there. What the hell is the Ramstein Airbase still doing in Germany after 60 years of WWII?
It must be part of the new order globalist vision. It should turn out to be a big waste of time, like the rest of Iraq has been. A monumental waste of time to be exact.
#2. oh, they should not worry about a long-term presence. This Administration throws around billion dollar projects with great abandon.
Once again I can only say – conservative porkmeisters put liberals to shame. Sen. Robert Byrd would probably give his left nut to bring a project like this back to West Virginia.
Just sink a few oil wells inside the compound and we’re set.
Here’s what is really happening: the embassy buildings are hiding the world’s largest oil drilling rig. Underground wells are being drilled diagonally in all directions, reaching into Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. All their oil will be sucked into huge tanks disguised as office buildings, then loaded onto A380 tanker planes (the A380 production problems were a ruse so the U.S. military could secretly get their hands on the first ones off the production line) and flown to Exxon International Oilport in Texas (secretly built last month with funding from one week’s profit). Thus, a seemingly endless supply of oil for our Freedom and American Way of life.
The fact that the big media doesnt cover this at all is pretty pathetic. They are truely worthless.
Beyond that though I would say a better question for the Iraqi’s is “If the American’s can build and thrive at their own projects how come our governement and our people cant do it in our own country?” We certainly have imported the modern lazy mentality to the Iraqi people. If you dont have power and water and your goverenment isnt doing it then you had better fix it.
This project goes to show you that in cases where we control the situation shit gets done. Where we have to allow for their flawed systems and people things fail.
Arrius — you certainly have the Pentagon mentality. You should work for them — or the neocon nutcases — full time.
It ain’t too hard anyplace in the world to get a construction project completed when you’re paying 50 times the going rate for everything from cement to laborers.
Of course, that’s compounded a wee bit more by the division or so of America’s finest needed to provide security at the job site.
Shit gets done? Your movie idols made the shit happen in the first place.
I think it’s ironic that Saddam used to build these lavish palaces to himself which he then walled off from the average Iraqi. Not to be out done, the United States comes in and picks-up where Saddam left off. Even Saddam would have gaped in awe at such an expensive monument to himself.
#7. “Where we have to allow for their flawed systems and people things fail.”
And thus the Iraq War itself – which depends upon the Iraqi systems (Army, Police) actually working – will inevitably fail.
Which raises the following question – how foolish was it to stake thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of American dollars upon the success of such systems?
#10. President Nutjob’s logic is flawed. The US cannot shift blame to Iran, since the Bush Administration’s failure to secure Iraq’s borders – including the one with Iran – is one of the central screwups of this whole debacle. Pointing out Iranian support for the Shiite militias merely emphasizes the deadly effects of that particular failure.
and, from the article:
“[W]hen [Iran and Nicaragua] signed a development agreement largely targeting Nicaragua’s economic and infrastructure problems. It called for the construction of dams and homes, and factories building everything from buses to bicycles. They also agreed to establish programs to improve drinking water, ports and the fishing industry.”
ah, crap. time to crank up the Contras again. anybody know where Ollie North and Fawn Hall have been keeping themselves?
“Visible from space”? My driveway is visible from space. I have proof.
#12 – Ollie North is hosting backyard barbecues that his neighbors attend because his gonzo stories put Hunter Thompson’s tales to shame and because they’re afraid not to attend if invited. That’s according to an acquaintance of mine who seemed serious but you never know.
#13 – Good one! I just checked at Google and mine is visible too.
Maybe George W is going to go be the new ruler of Iraq after he’s out of office here? I mean, at least, he can do all the wiretaps he wants, and enact all the patriot acts he wants…without complaint or opposition. Then he could have a better shot at invading Iran. Maybe he could bring bible-thumping to the natives?
That would chap his father’s hide, wouldn’t it?
“Look at me, Daddy, I was president, and now I’m the KING!”
16,
If you look at the history of Iraq, there has never been peace there with a foreign army in place. Of course, Iraq’s history is quite recent, but it’s still true.
I guess you could look up Mesopotamia if you want to roll back the clock past WWI.
Anybody remember what happened in Tehran in 1977 to the US embassy?
I’m guessing that *somebody* in the administration is actually thinking ahead, to the time when the religious extremists turn Iraq into a fundamentalist theocracy. This is one embassy that will not be stormed.
It probably has landing strips along with helipads to evacuate everybody … “just in case” as it were.
But I like the diagonal oil-drilling idea. Completely self-sufficient, no doubt with deep underground water-drilling, and space for their own crops.
#16. The President I was referring to as NutJob was the President of Iran. Not exactly peas in a pod with Bush, but the similarities are there.
“I fully support America’s right to build a lavish monument in tribute to George W Bush’s glorious war of terror against the Iraqi people.”
Borat
#19, darn it, ya beat me to my idea !!! Hey, if we both thought of it, then it must be good.
21,
No. Iraqi’s want to be ruled by Iraqi’s. No foreigners. Remember, they DID have a long and bloody war with Iran that is still in their minds, history and direct family.
Unfortunately, Saddam kept the Theocratic’s under wraps. Now that “democracy” has flowered there, the Muslim Shi’ites want to have a religious government, and the USians have to support it, since they effectively set it up as so. I’m beginning to understand why HWBush kept the armed rebellion after Gulf War 1 down when the people tried to oust Saddam. He didn’t want Iraq to become Iran. He still liked Saddam.
As another side note to the story, more specifically the power supply issues present in Baghdad here is a link (http://tinyurl.com/2kw729) to a not so pessimistic story angle. I guess reports about new and more efficient power sources isn’t a “viable news story” to the main stream media. Doom & Gloom sells, what can I say.
A couple exerts:
GRD = Gulf Region Division of the Army Corps of Engineers
“Completed GRD electrical generation projects have provided an additional 1,420 megawatts of potential generation capacity to Iraq’s national grid. At the end of the program, GRD projects will have added 1,879 megawatts of potential generation capacity, which can serve an estimated 1.7 million homes.”
“Completed GRD water treatment projects have added over 430,000 cubic meters per day of water treatment capacity, which potentially benefits 2.2 million Iraqis. At the end of the program, an additional 1,136,000 cubic meters per day of water treatment capacity will benefit approximately 5.2 million Iraqis.”
#21. the Shiite marjority would probably pick Ahmedinejad over Bush. remember, although Iraq fought a long war against Iran, that was not exactly the Shiite Iraqis’ choice. Also, a good number of the Shiite political class spent a lot of time in exile in Iran because Dumbya’s daddy betrayed them in the Gulf War. many of the Shiite political parties have “Islamic Revolution” or “Islamic Republic” in their names.
Another glorious triumph for democracy – billions of dollars and thousands of American lives later and the Iraqis will vote themselves a watered-down version of Iranian-style government.
when the dust settles in Iraq (if it does in my lifetime), it will likely be a great friend to Iran, if not an outright client state. this will likely be true even if large numbers of US troops are sitting in their isolated bases out in the Iraqi desert and swarms of US bureaucrats are hunkered down in the monstrous embassy complex.
#22. indeed. great minds and all that. 😉
why is anyone surprised. in America, we like big cars, big food(who the heck wants a quadruple whooper), big houses, and big boobs. so of course the embassy will be big.
now what I am wondering about is whether or not the Russians or even the Iranians have managed to infiltrate the work crews and have bugs planted all over the place. 😉
WHAT THE FORK!
Could there be a more assenine thing to do than build a ginormous embassy in a country that isn’t really a country anymore – its more of a collective rabble… or a group of civilians terrorized by thugs.
GAWD AMIGHTY! I THINK I”M HAVING A STROKE!
#2 “What the hell is the Ramstein Airbase still doing in Germany after 60 years of WWII?”
Because the Germans still want us there. Not because they like the US but because they love the almighty Green Back. It was mainly kept open because of the Cold War after WWII, but there was talk of closing it down after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Germans didn’t like the sound of that because of all the Money the base generates.
Gee what a nice thing for the US government to do for Iraq.
Good thing there wasn’t one place in the US that could have used a little help rebuilding.
Now you know why New Orleans is taking so long to rebuild.
Is it going to be painted in concentric circles of alternating colours with a number against each? Because it looks like the biggest target in the rest of the world to me.
#32. Yes. So we should dump the entire Baghdad Project and focus on putting an American city back together. I imagine it could be done for substantially less that $1T US.
So take care of America first than the rest of the world?