Giant U.S. Embassy project dismays Iraqis

[Jon8503]

By Liz Sly
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published May 29, 2006

BAGHDAD -- On the western bank of the Tigris River, scenes of intense activity rarely witnessed in Iraq are unfolding behind the fortified perimeter of the closely guarded Green Zone.

Trucks shuttle building materials to and fro. Cranes, at least a dozen of them, punch toward the sky. Concrete structures are beginning to take form. At a time when most Iraqis are enduring blackouts of up to 22 hours a day, the site is floodlighted by night so work can continue around the clock.

This is to be the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and it will be the biggest embassy in the world. It also is the biggest construction project under way in battered Baghdad, where the only other cranes rising from the skyline belong to Saddam Hussein's abandoned project to build the world's biggest mosque.

The irony is not lost on Mohammed Jasim, 48, a truck driver who was forced out of his home last month by sectarian violence and now is squatting in an abandoned building just across the river from the $592million embassy project.

(rest of article @ link below)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605290180may29,1,2309818.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[sutz12]

1. Finally, a US paper picks up on this story.

:shrug:

[texasleo]

2. This story is the elephant in the room

it's there, but nobody wants to talk about how it will lead them to resent us more.

[madokie]

3. Yes I read this in the Tulsa World newspaper this morning,

Is this a slow day for newspaper readers or what. Surely they aren't going to start telling us wtf is going on in the world are they, I mean can we really handle the news :sarcasm:

[global1]

4. Sounds Like Saddam's Palace......nt

[cornermouse]

5. A giant U.S. embassy project in Iraq dismays me too.

More money down a rat hole.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. It will make a nice target for anti-American forces for decades to come.

600 million for a gold-plated palace.

Sickening.

[izzie]

7. My bet is the Iraq people will blow it up when we leave.

Like with most money we spend out of the DOD it will go up in smoke.

[ContraBass Black]

11. No, I think theyd make better use of it.

Think of all the homeless people it could house.

[izzie]

12. True but it will not be USA

I can not see the point of it any how.

[leftchick]

8. good questions by the Iraqis....

<snip>

"They could build houses, or they could bring security to Baghdad," Jasim complained as he sat in the shade of a big tree on the riverbank. "But it's clear they only came here for their own benefit because you can see how much money they are spending across the river."

Though the site is an open secret, U.S. Embassy officials, currently based in Hussein's former Republican Palace, are forbidden to discuss it.

<snip>

"Why are they only building this building?" asked Abdul Kareem al-Khiat, sales manager of the 14-story Babylon Hotel, whose riverside rooms have panoramic views of the construction site. "All the Iraqis are asking this question."

[acmavm]

9. "Why are they only building this building?"

I hope there were/are brighter members of his family, because this guy sounds about two loads short of a brick.

[lectrobyte]

13. English his probably his second language -- I think he's asking

why, out of all the possible rebuilding projects that could be happening, does the embassy seem to be progressing?

[acmavm]

14. Oh for Pete's sake, I'm not talking about his skills speaking the

English language. I'm saying that the answer to his question is so damn obvious that it makes asking it pointless.

Their question should be "what are they building the world's largest embassy here in Iraq when all we want is for these corrupt bastards to get their lying bloody asses out of our country." And that question is redundant as well because we know, and they damn well should know, that the neocons and the oil companies NEVER INTEND to leave. They need a place from which to govern. And that comes first in the minds of the conquerors.

[teryang]

10. Will become the Iraqi National Museum of War Atrocities

Soon after we are ejected from Iraq. There will be rooms recreating torture scenes in Abu Ghraid, the slaughter of civilians at Fallujah and elsewhere, and the litany of lies that led to the ultimate war crime, the invasion itself. News clips and articles from mainstream American media justifying the war crime will be replayed on continuous loops.