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After months of delay, the United States has established an embassy in Baghdad, the State Department. After delays, U.S. diplomats will begin moving into the mammoth new heavily fortified embassy next month.
Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy has signed a “certificate of occupancy,” which gives the United States ownership of the heavily fortified embassy compound inside the Green Zone and allows staff to move into its 27 buildings…
A recent spike in insurgent attacks that killed several Americans in the Green Zone prompted the State Department to order U.S. Embassy personnel not to leave reinforced buildings. A shortage of such space has forced some diplomats to temporarily sleep at the new embassy compound, despite the lack of occupancy certification…
The Vatican-size compound, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic facility in the world, was scheduled to open in September at a cost of $592 million, but the price tag is expected to rise to more than $730 million.
American taxpayers never question a holy cause. We’ll enjoy sustaining this temple to our Middle Eastern Crusade for decades.
“Architecture as inspiring as our Fearless Leaders”
well said
Looks like a Soviet-Era Prison !!! Well, Dumbya always wanted to be a DICTATOR !!!
It has that look of tyrany about it, It wouldn’t look out of place as an 80s’ installation of the British army in Northern Ireland, or some sort of Israel army post on the west bank, or a some adminsitrative bit of the berlin wall before it got torn down.
grim.
Yes, security buildings in war zones.
What do you dopes want–glass?
Now we know what happened to the “architect” of the Soviet era. He works for us! Well done, comrade!
Well, let’s face it. Some time in the future, when the Iraqis have finished taking back their own country – this will probably be a nice university complex.
If we don’t blow it up during the retreat, that is.
#5 – BigE
Comrade architect charged good money for it…
Have they put a statue of Bush out front – for toppling at some future date?
I hope the roof can accomodate the evacuation helicopters. The Vietnam evacuation was so messy – such poor planning.
If you are running the governemnt while believing that government can’t do anything right, you have a good excuse to do a lousy job. Hell – it even proves you right.
@keane-o
They should make a statue of Bush clearing brush. It seems to be the only thing he is good at.
Brought to you by Halliburton. Bush will not go there, because there’s no brush to clear. I’ll bet that after McAncient saw this, it’s when he made the comment that we would be in Iraq for 100 years. Nice gift to Bush’s buddies, the Arabian royalty!
Yep, it’s bigger but the same “style” as one built a decade ago in Lima, Peru. Lovely, eh.
Eideard is right.
This is just another Crusader Castle. A big one!
While not a Bush-basher… I think it would be fitting that after he is out, he should be the new ambassador to take residence… wouldn’t that be a hoot! No need to topple the statue, topple the real deal!
This means in roughly 2 years we will see the helicopters plucking people off the roof as we escape the North Vietnamese,sorry, the Iraqi liberation front.
@tweak-me
Only if he goes without SS protection. Maybe he could go shopping at one of those bazaars that McCain is so fond of visiting.
If Bush insanely bombs Iraq to give McCain the benefit of an “October surprise”, you can be sure Iran is going to hit us back.
Hit back. Right? For sure, right?
You can also be sure Bush and Co. have not thought this thing through, at all.
One likely target is this monstrosity of anm embassy crammed packed with American soft-targets. A gigantic dirty bomb right at the parameter comes to mind.
OH, seesh, I wrote it wrong…
If Bush insanely bombs Iran to give McCain the benefit of an “October surprise”, you can be sure Iran is going to hit us back.
Those evacuation helicopters in Viet Nam were the result of the Democrats in Congress breaking the treaty we had with South Viet Nam.
Sure that’s not a Chicago school?
Boy, I hope they have good, long, hidden tunnels to take everybody out of there when Obama pulls the plug.
I object to that caption. I don’t want the government wasting money on designing buildings to look pretty. Modern architects are designing some crappy buildings that get hailed as brilliant and artistic.
Can’t speak about the Baghdad compound but I had occasion to deal with the Embassy folks at the new building in Kabul. Also very expensive. I heard estimates that with overruns it would cost well onto 3/4 of a billion dollars. I have to say the architecture is slightly better than Baghdad though they chose to paint it baby shit brown! And that slight improvement might change as they replace the container buildings across the street. The compound is huge and is divided down the middle by a main thoroughfare leading to the airport. So, of course, the Embassy has blocked this street off to all but military and Embassy personnel. Which really pissed off the locals. Not to mention those of us who had to deal with the Embassy or the State Department offices across the street. Even though we had security clearances, we couldn’t drive to the entrances. We were forced to park and walk the last couple of hundred meters. Sitting ducks in an area that frequently was under rocket fire. But best of all was the security force. Filipinos. The private contractor that got the deal originally hired ex-British forces Ghurkas but, it was rumored they were too expensive so were replaced by the pride of the Philippine discount mercenaries. Of course, these second class guards were never used for close protection: that duty fell to the Australian and British ex-paras hired by the firm. And these guys are so hard core they make the Secret Service look like a bunch of kindergarteners! (Once, two of them burst into my office, assault rifles at the ready, because my secretary had asked them to wait a moment while I finished a phone call. They were there to discuss security for an upcoming congressional visitor and informed me I would never again tell them to wait for anything! I didn’t talk with them at all. I called the State Department and had them removed. But that’s the mindset among these people. You should see how they treat locals!) The bill for private contractors was reportedly over $1 billion (that is a B) per year on a five year contract. I’m fairly sure that’s far more than a a similar number of US Marines would cost. And for that much money, you’d think they could at least use American weapons. The Filipinos all made do with AK-47s while the elite Aussie and Brit troops had lovely H&Ks.