Safety is an issue for new embassy

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Sat, May. 19, 2007

By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press

~snip~ The embassy is one of the few major projects the administration has undertaken in Iraq that are on schedule and within budget. Still, not all has gone according to plan. ~snip~

The complex quickly could become a white elephant if the U.S. scales back its presence and ambitions in Iraq. Although the U.S. probably will have forces in Iraq for years to come, it isn’t clear how much of the traditional work of diplomacy can proceed amid the violence and what the future holds for Iraq’s government.

“What you have is a situation in which they are building an embassy without really thinking about what its functions are,” said Edward Peck, a former top U.S. diplomat in Iraq. “What kind of embassy is it when everybody lives inside and it’s blast-proof and people are running around with helmets and crouching behind sandbags?”

The compound will have secure apartments for about 615 people. The one-bedrooms have offered hope for State Department staff now doubled up in tinny trailers. ~snip~

http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/114723.html

[rurallib]

1. Seems to me we have built a huge and expensive target.

Maybe Bush will move in after he's done presidenting.

[Lasher]

2. Most people realized a few centuries ago that castles don't protect you very well

I mean, what with all them newfangled cannons and everything, castles pretty much became obsolete.

[Monk06]

3. Hitler's bunker was blast proof. Problem is everyone inside of it was stark raving mad.