The Mega Luxury Bunker of Baghdad - the new US Embassy.

[LuckyLib]

While Iraq crumbles to dust, construction on a permanent fortress in Baghdad is underway.

The new US embassy compound takes up 104 acres, the size of 80 football field -- read the tragic details in William Langewiesche's well done piece:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/langewiesche200711

<snip> The new American Embassy in Baghdad will be the largest, least welcoming, and most lavish embassy in the world: a $600 million massively fortified compound with 619 blast-resistant apartments and a food court fit for a shopping mall.

<snip> The compound, which will be completed by late fall, is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, a walled expanse the size of Vatican City, containing 21 reinforced buildings on a 104-acre site along the Tigris River, enclosed within an extension of the Green Zone which stretches toward the airport road. The new embassy cost $600 million to build, and is expected to cost another $1.2 billion a year to run—a high price even by the profligate standards of the war in Iraq.

<snip> For the most part, however, the new embassy is not about leaving Iraq, but about staying on—for whatever reason, under whatever circumstances, at whatever cost. As a result the compound is largely self-sustaining, and contains its own power generators, water wells, drinking-water treatment plant, sewage plant, fire station, irrigation system, Internet uplink, secure intranet, telephone center (Virginia area code), cell-phone network (New York area code), mail service, fuel depot, food and supply warehouses, vehicle-repair garage, and workshops. At the core stands the embassy itself, a massive exercise in the New American Bunker style, with recessed slits for windows, a filtered and pressurized air-conditioning system against chemical or biological attack, and sufficient office space for hundreds of staff. Both the ambassador and deputy ambassador have been awarded fortified residences grand enough to allow for elegant diplomatic receptions even with the possibility of mortar rounds dropping in from above.


<snip> What on earth is going on? We have built a fortified America in the middle of a hostile city, peopled it with a thousand officials from every agency of government, and provided them with a budget to hire thousands of contractors to take up the slack. Half of this collective is involved in self-defense. The other half is so isolated from Iraq that, when it is not dispensing funds into the Iraqi ether, it is engaged in nothing more productive than sustaining itself.


:banghead:

[Atman]

1. You know what's almost as scary? Many DUers still don't know about this.

I was posting about this goddam "Occupier's Palace." for a couple of years now. I've had some threads turn into hateful flame-fests sayin I couldn't possibly be right. It does seem surreal, but it's true. And it is among the primary reasons Bush has steadfastly refused to budge on his Iraq position. We cannot even think of "leaving" until this place is finished. Halliburton, and just about every contractor who's ever donated to BushCo has a stake in this. Telcos, food vendors, you name it. Bush handed out millions in rewards to his buddies via this project. Once it's done, then and only then will be begin "withdrawing" troops. But many will only be re-assigned to guard the Occupier's Palace.

But beyond the bizarreness of this Palace is the reason for it. The was wasn't about oil, right? But these plans weren't drawn up overnight...someone had obviously already been contracted to design this place well before the invasion. But what's it for? An embassy where we don't use diplomatic measures. What are all these diplomats going to do? Perhaps, in actuality, it's merely the new corporate headquarters for Rape & Pillage, Inc (another subsidiary of Halliburton)? Who the fuck knows. But a lot of palm-greasers got their pockets line with this project. Which, let's face it, is just the new capital city of the Occupying Force. Since "Iraq" as it was known when we invaded was basically an artificial country anyway, I'm sure BushCo sees no problem with his evil plan to make it even more artificial and just another American territory. That's the plan. And I'd bet somewhere deep in those plans lie Bush's "legacy." It will probably be named after him some day.

.

[Lucinda]

2. All that and we can't manage to get basic services to the Iraqis

Shameful.

[Swamp Rat]

3. You can check in but you can't check out...

if you're Iraqi.

[LuckyLib]

6. Another work of art -- the Halliburton Hotel. How true.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

4. K & R

[alfredo]

5. I'd retire before I would let them send me to that death trap.

[OxQQme]

7. Mirrors on the ceiling,

Pink champagne on ice.
And she said, "We are all prisoners here, of our own device."
And in the master's chambers they gathered for the feast.
They stab it with their steely knives. But they just can't kill the beast.

Last thing I remember, I was running for the door.
Had to find the passage back to the place I was before.
"Relax" said the night man, "we are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like.
But you can never leave."

[alfredo]

9. Perfect lyrics

[opihimoimoi]

8. and if I could remind....hardly anyone to fill those positions unless the salary/bonus

totals $$364587.oo per month

[Disturbed]

11. Any next Dem Pres. will keep a lot of US Troops & Mercs

in Iraq to defend that Palace. Sen. Clinton has already stated that she would do so.

[Canuckistanian]

10. K&R for the skeptics

The ridiculousness of this project is such that even the embassy's location was supposed to be secret - even though a million Iraqis could watch the construction happening.

[OzarkDem]

12. I'm surprised reporters were stupid enough to fall for it

They are the "eyes & ears" of the US public on the ground in Iraq. Certainly we deserve better than such a foolish, ignorant lot who fell for this crap when they should have known better.

[Faryn Balyncd]

13. A monument to arrogance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nothing is a more fitting symbol of the fundamental moral failing of our current foreign policy.

We rejected our values for a false promise of security when we adopted the principle of pre-emptive war.

We traded our soul when we appointed ourselves guardian of an area with natural resources important to our "way of life".

We are losing our liberties in the bargain.





Our next president should abandon this monument to arrogance, and give it to the Iraqis with no strings attached.

It would be an extremely small and inadequate down-payment for what it rightful their due.

(The $600 million is, in fact, only 30% of what the Anbar sheiks are currently demanding for their changing sides. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071102/ts_nm/iraq_usa_anbar_dc )

[babylonsister]

14. My disagreement with Obama today was this! Why is this so

important? It's behind schedule and will be bombed ad nauseum. Time to go, lock, stock and barrel.

[Gregorian]

15. Something tells me they're doing it without permits.

Sorry. It's posts like this that have not added to the discussion here. I'm guilty.

It's just that I'm starting to work with the county permit process, and it's amazing what I can't do.

To be honest, I think my comment has some merit. Permits? We don't need no stinking permits. Dick Cheney gave us permission.

[DCKit]

16. $600 Million on something that's going to be attacked on a daily basis with bombs and rockets?

Another brilliant move by BushCo/Halliburton/Blackwater. The foresight amazes me to no end.