WP: In beginning of Iraq war, young Republicans occupied the Green Zone - built bars, disco, cafes

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010404125.html

<snip>

Shortly after triumphant U.S. forces arrived in Baghdad in April 2003, they took over Hussein's Presidential Palace along the Tigris River, enclosed the surrounding 5.9 square miles with concrete walls and concertina wire, and declared it the seat of their occupation government. In those days, soldiers thought they would return home within months. Many U.S. civilian staff members who arrived in the military's wake were young conservatives working up the Republican Party ladder. They saw Iraq as a place to transfer their ideals to a grateful nation, fight terrorism and have an exciting time.

They set up no fewer than six bars, a disco, a cafe, two Chinese restaurants and an outdoor shopping arcade. Personnel stationed inside the zone would jog on the sidewalks and relax in the garden behind the Republican Palace.

But before the first year ended, violence exploded in the Red Zone -- the 437,000 square miles that make up the rest of Iraq -- and the soldiers settled in for a long fight against a growing insurgency. As the attacks against U.S. forces escalated, Iraqis proved resistant to American ideas of how to organize their government and lives, and they began to fight among themselves.

Inside the Green Zone, fear replaced enthusiasm as mortar shells rained from the sky during 2006 and 2007, and many hours were spent inside concrete bunkers. Over the past several months, the attacks have largely stopped, except for a burst of two dozen shells on Thanksgiving, but the walls grew higher and civilian trips outside the wire became infrequent.

[ixion]

1. oh what a difference a few years of hostile occupation makes

even the freepers don't like it.

[rodeodance]

2. I remember this article.

[Yavin4]

3. If Someone Wrote A Book About This Or Made It Into A Movie

they'd be sued for plagiarizing Joe Heller's "Catch-22".

Truth always trumps fiction.

[Octafish]

4. You had to be a puke to get a job.

They had turds fresh out of Bob Jones "university" out building the Iraqi bourse.

Now, they're begging for help:

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They take the fun out of everything and the life out of everyone.

Vampire NAZI scum BFEE.

[bleever]

5. Should I really have clicked that link?

It looks real, including the amateurish lying and fake testimonials with photos.

Christ, these people lack design sense on global, judicial, and all other known levels.

[stephinrome]

6. A good book is:

Imperial life in the Emerald City
Inside Baghdad's Green Zone
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

[SpiralHawk]

7. ...and the republicon chickenhawks ran for the exits...

as usual...following their leaders, George AWOL Bush and Dickie "Five Military Deferments" Cheney...