What cost $700,000,000 +, has 21 buildings, and is on 104 acres?

[Botany]

If you guessed the US Embassy in Baghdad you would be right.



Oh BTW it is now a white elephant but many in Congress are now worried about the
cost of health care and Obama's stimulus plan.

Audit Urges Cuts at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad -- the United States' largest and most costly overseas diplomatic mission, with 1,873 employees -- is overstaffed and must be reduced to a size more in keeping with the evolving U.S.-Iraq relationship and budget constraints, government auditors said in a report issued Wednesday.

The State Department's inspector general said that although the U.S. presence in Iraq will become more civilian as the military withdraws over the next two years, the embassy "should be able to carry out all of its responsibilities with significantly fewer staff and in a much-reduced footprint." The reduction "has to begin immediately," the report said, before Foreign Service officers complete their next assignment bidding cycle and other employees are extended or hired.

snip

For more than five years following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the embassy was housed in Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace inside the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. In the Bush administration, the audit said, normal staffing limits were not imposed, and cost "did not seem to be a factor."

Construction on a new embassy compound began in 2005 -- 21 buildings on 104 highly secured acres, costing more than $700 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072203505.html

[Vickers]

1. Looks like a jail.

Tiny little windows.

[Botany]

2. that pix is 2007 .....

the thing is bigger than Vatican City

[TankLV]

22. 592 MILLION???!!!

not even a TENTH of what is really cost - these assholes have NO shame, do they...

[NJCher]

3. FYI

I guessed it immediately.

So glad we can support this yet can't manage to provide basic healthcare for U.S. citizens.


Cher

[spanone]

4. i never heard one 'fiscal minded republican' talk about the bu$h* spending

[Botany]

5. you are so pre 9-11

don't you know that Iraq and Saddam were a threat to America w/ weapons they didn't have,
links to 9-11 that were not there, and support of al Qaeda by Saddam shooting them when
ever he had a chance to ..... :grr:

[conspirator]

6. That's a fucking colonial fortress. Fort Exxon nt

[madrchsod]

7. the during the construction of this fortress

iraq`s could not purchase concrete to rebuild their homes and businesses. there was`t enough concrete to repair roads and bridges.

the building will be there for thousands of years unless someone in the future destroys it. heck of a job george!

[Stevenmarc]

8. I see they went with a retro soviet era housing block style

[Blue_Tires]

19. that was my thought as well...

[glitch]

24. not surprising coming from retro soviet era apparatchiks nt

[greguganus]

9. I was gonna guess John Edward's house. n/t

[truedelphi]

28. He probably needs a lot of space.

I imagine that the Edwards' dog house is humongous!

[Frustratedlady]

10. What an ugly building.

It makes me sick to think of the lives and money we lost in Iraq. Add to that, the horrible loss of life and wealth in Iraq and other countries.

The cherry on top is the fact our country elected those clowns twice!

[Botany]

13. The cherry on top is the fact our country elected those clowns twice

ah no we didn't ..... the supreme court stopped the vote count in Florida 2000
and Ohio 2004 was stolen plain and simple. BTW I saw the 2004 with my own
eyes and heard it w/ my own ears.

[Frustratedlady]

27. Poor choice of words, I know.

I should have used "selected" -- you certainly wouldn't want to hear the words that crossed my mind as I typed it. I was merely being nice.

Isn't it amazing how even the thought of those two elections make your b/p rise?

[Botany]

31. I worked for Kerry in Ohio 2004

and what I saw and heard was wild ..... and what really pisses me off is the total lack of coverage of known facts of what
happened in Ohio 2004.

Sorry to jump on you.


http://www.thousandreasons.org/get_article.php?article_id=13

a little about me

[Frustratedlady]

35. Hey, I've never doubted it was rigged. They'll never convince me it wasn't.

I still believe there was something that happened the last few days, as Kerry was like a deer in headlights. I hope I live long enough to find out what it was.

God help us if they ever get in office again.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

11. Have you heard

that US forces are leaving the cities?

How does that work you ask?

Well the "Iraqi Government" (read proxy US puppets) has re-designated where the city boundaries are and curiously US military bases that were once inside the city limits are now outside the city limits. All with the stroke of a pen. Well and a little strong arming.

Plus ca' change...

[truth2power]

16. "proxy US puppets"...

Yep. It's about the oil. Ohly about the oil. We got what we came for. Screw the poor Iraqi people. A million killed. So what? Do they have democracy yet?

We have NEVER been interested in Democracy anywhere in the world. Read "Killing Hope: U.S. military and CIA interventions since WWII" by William Blum.

Our war dead get military funerals, 21 gun salutes, medals, dignified services before they're laid to rest. Every one of them is some mother's son or daughter.

The Iraqi children killed by OUR Weapons of Mass Destruction are wrapped in a rag and consigned to a hole in the ground wherever one can be found. EVERY ONE of them is some mother's son or daughter.


If there is such a thing as karma.....

[grasswire]

12. George W's albatross.

He ought to be forced to live there by himself.

[bobbolink]

38. And waterboarded daily!

[Oregone]

14. We will NEVER leave Iraq

This is concrete proof. SOFA timelines will be abandoned when "conditions in the ground change".

[timeforpeace]

18. Correct. Bush's real reason was permanent Mideast presence, not al Qaeda, not oil.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. The neo-ominous architecture says a lot about how welcome we are there.

[TankLV]

23. And to think they still condemn Albert Speerer...

[global1]

17. Wow - I'm Both Shock and Awed By This.........

interesting - looks like it was built on the very spot that the original Shock & Awe bombing that we saw televised at the start of this so-called war. Looks to me like the plans were drawn up before the bombing - so that the excavation work could be started right from the get go.

[Historic NY]

20. Why not use it as a NEO-CON-prison, it looks like one...

for those that wanted us to invade.

[Botany]

21. and their guards can be some of the former inmates @ Abu Ghraib

You know the ones that we raped their kids in front of so they would confess to stuff
that Dick Cheney and Rummy wanted them to.

[ladywnch]

30. lock them up there and then withdraw the scurity cover

let them fall victim to attacks on the compound...... let the Iraqis have them!

[benld74]

25. BUILT with US $$ by a SAUDI Construction Co. CAn you say quid pro quo

[truedelphi]

29. I guess I can say quid pro quo, but what was it that

Sausdi Arabia gave us? I forget.

[NecklyTyler]

41. How much graft the Halliburton get for "managing" the contract?

Touch the money and get paid - it is a fine defense contractor tradition

[PatSeg]

26. Historically, Congress has had little problem

forking over money for anything military with little or no restrictions, but gets very stingy when it comes to healthcare or education. This attitude is nothing new.

[UrbScotty]

32. Conservative fiscal restraint at its finest.

[IDemo]

33. The blueprint for embassy expansions in Af/Pak

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0528/p90s01-wosc.html

US to spend $1 billion on embassy expansions in Pakistan, Afghanistan

Diplomatic presence on the scale of Iraq prompts concerns in Pakistan about American meddling

Islamabad - The US is embarking on a $1 billion crash program to expand its diplomatic presence in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, another sign that the Obama administration is making a costly, long-term commitment to war-torn South Asia, US officials said Wednesday.

The White House has asked Congress for – and seems likely to receive – $736 million to build a new US embassy in Islamabad, along with permanent housing for US government civilians and new office space in the Pakistani capital.

The scale of the projects rivals the giant US Embassy in Baghdad, which was completed last year after construction delays at a cost of $740 million.

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. If the facade complete in the pic? It looks ugly.

[salguine]

36. That's not an embassy. It's a colonial capital.

[Rex]

37. 700 million? That is all?

Shit, that doesn't even make the B-scale. Small taters. :sarcasm:

[Quantess]

39. That's the ugliest $700,000,000 building ever!

[JI7]

40. it reminds me of the Soviet Union