Iraq "Embassy"
The US did not invade Iraq for oil. The oil is now in the hands of the Iraqis, and they are auctioning off production rights at very tight margins which only the national oil companies and some of the little guys are interested in. In other words, US companies will not be that heavily involved in oil production in Iraq. It is looking like China will get much more of the benefit of a stable Iraq that we will.
Which is fine. I always thought the primary and best justification for going into Iraq was to remove a dictator who had killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. Speaking of which, why is it always liberals who are against invasions to remove horrendous dictators? I just don't get that one. If you actually believed in helping people, we would already have troops on the ground in the Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Moving on..
If you then assume that we were there to fix the country up, and then pull back when things were stable (pretty much what are objective has been), why are we building this thing?
The monstrosity before you is the Baghdad embassy—the largest of any nation on planet earth and ten times bigger than any other US embassy. The structure cost more than $700 million and is the size of 80 football fields. It is bigger than the Vatican, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and is about two thirds the size of the National Mall in Washington. It is freaking enormous.
It is also fraught with scandal as it turns out that we got screwed over by a bunch of middle eastern contractors, but so it goes with such things.
What I am more impressed by is the damn size of the "embassy." I mean, embassies are meant to be nice stone buildings lined up along a quaint old street in the heart of the capital. Diplomats meet for tea, spies run their operations and brochures are handed out.
Except for in this one, which is basically the deathstar, minus the giant laser beam (maybe....). It is the largest, most heavily fortified embassy in the world. It boasts 21 buildings, a commissary, cinema, retail and shopping areas, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power and water treatment plants, as well as telecommunications and wastewater treatment facilities. It also has space for 1,000 residents in six apartment blocks.
One would not be wrong in thinking this kind of investment does not signal a desire to um... leave. It honestly makes me worried. After we pull out of Iraq, which we will and should... why do we need this? I really don't think I am being naive: I know cynics would say we are building it so was can continue to occupy the country and take their oil. But those cynics are a) idiots, and b) wrong (the two go hand in hand a lot). We are not taking their oil, we have given them full control over it, and they have contracted with almost all non-US companies for production sharing agreements.
So what the hell is this for? Granted, we needed it now, for a couple more years, but is it really worth building this thing in the middle of Baghdad and keeping it occupied in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Its costing $700 million dollars to put it there, we should probably get some value out of it. Maybe we can sell most of it off as luxury condos with great sniper cover fire.
Some statements I agree with:
"Traditionally, at least, embassies were designed to further interaction with the community in which they were built," “Although the U.S. Government regularly proclaims confidence in Iraq’s democratic future, the U.S. has designed an embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for their future. Instead, the U.S. has built a fortress capable of sustaining a massive, long-term presence in the face of continued violence.”
This thing is built in the green zone, along with the Iraqi government. What this building sends is a message to the Iraqi people that the US is really the ones in charge, and that though we support your "freedom" we really indent to run your country as a puppet state. It a tactic as old as the Romans, to build a vast and imposingly superior building or city to show off who is really in charge.
The thing is, I think this was done out of stupidity. I don't think anyone really thought through the psychological or political impact of parking the modern equivalent of the Tower of London right in the middle of Baghdad. I think someone in the military looked at the numbers and said "we needed a safer more cost effective way to house US personnel and stop them from getting blown up." They looked at the options, and this is what they came up with. In my opinion this is not a story of malice or domineering, it is a story of sheer, colossal, stupidity.
Which is fine. I always thought the primary and best justification for going into Iraq was to remove a dictator who had killed hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. Speaking of which, why is it always liberals who are against invasions to remove horrendous dictators? I just don't get that one. If you actually believed in helping people, we would already have troops on the ground in the Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Moving on..
If you then assume that we were there to fix the country up, and then pull back when things were stable (pretty much what are objective has been), why are we building this thing?
The monstrosity before you is the Baghdad embassy—the largest of any nation on planet earth and ten times bigger than any other US embassy. The structure cost more than $700 million and is the size of 80 football fields. It is bigger than the Vatican, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and is about two thirds the size of the National Mall in Washington. It is freaking enormous.
It is also fraught with scandal as it turns out that we got screwed over by a bunch of middle eastern contractors, but so it goes with such things.
What I am more impressed by is the damn size of the "embassy." I mean, embassies are meant to be nice stone buildings lined up along a quaint old street in the heart of the capital. Diplomats meet for tea, spies run their operations and brochures are handed out.
Except for in this one, which is basically the deathstar, minus the giant laser beam (maybe....). It is the largest, most heavily fortified embassy in the world. It boasts 21 buildings, a commissary, cinema, retail and shopping areas, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power and water treatment plants, as well as telecommunications and wastewater treatment facilities. It also has space for 1,000 residents in six apartment blocks.
One would not be wrong in thinking this kind of investment does not signal a desire to um... leave. It honestly makes me worried. After we pull out of Iraq, which we will and should... why do we need this? I really don't think I am being naive: I know cynics would say we are building it so was can continue to occupy the country and take their oil. But those cynics are a) idiots, and b) wrong (the two go hand in hand a lot). We are not taking their oil, we have given them full control over it, and they have contracted with almost all non-US companies for production sharing agreements.
So what the hell is this for? Granted, we needed it now, for a couple more years, but is it really worth building this thing in the middle of Baghdad and keeping it occupied in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Its costing $700 million dollars to put it there, we should probably get some value out of it. Maybe we can sell most of it off as luxury condos with great sniper cover fire.
Some statements I agree with:
"Traditionally, at least, embassies were designed to further interaction with the community in which they were built," “Although the U.S. Government regularly proclaims confidence in Iraq’s democratic future, the U.S. has designed an embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for their future. Instead, the U.S. has built a fortress capable of sustaining a massive, long-term presence in the face of continued violence.”
This thing is built in the green zone, along with the Iraqi government. What this building sends is a message to the Iraqi people that the US is really the ones in charge, and that though we support your "freedom" we really indent to run your country as a puppet state. It a tactic as old as the Romans, to build a vast and imposingly superior building or city to show off who is really in charge.
The thing is, I think this was done out of stupidity. I don't think anyone really thought through the psychological or political impact of parking the modern equivalent of the Tower of London right in the middle of Baghdad. I think someone in the military looked at the numbers and said "we needed a safer more cost effective way to house US personnel and stop them from getting blown up." They looked at the options, and this is what they came up with. In my opinion this is not a story of malice or domineering, it is a story of sheer, colossal, stupidity.
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