In Baghdad, Closing a 5-Star Retreat

[cory777]

Source: New York Times

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — If the combat zone in Iraq were not so completely dry, some soldier on the staff of the palatial J.V.B. would be ringing last call.

Formally known as the Joint Visitors Bureau — no one ever came up with a name to better capture its peculiar ambiance — it will be taking down the welcome sign on Sept. 29, as the continuing withdrawal of American forces from Iraq makes it unnecessary to maintain the closest thing to a five-star hotel that any four-star command can boast of in a war zone.

After the conquest of Baghdad in 2003, the J.V.B., created out of a palace complex where Saddam Hussein’s cronies once hunted captive gazelles and entertained their mistresses, has evolved to offer hospitality, hot coffee and a decorous gathering spot for official guests of the American military in Iraq.

Every conflict creates its own hangout. The J.V.B. became Rick’s Café in Iraq, a magnet drawing defense secretaries in search of progress, embedded combat correspondents conducting interviews, Congressional delegations glad-handing their local counterparts and movie stars or stand-up comics breezing through, Bob Hope style.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/world/middleeast/09military.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

---

So this the way the Military plans to cut it's budget?

Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/