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Size, existence of gargantuan US Embassy in Iraq is repulsive


Does anyone else find the information in this article about the grandiosity and then some of the U.S. Embassy being built in Iraq embarrassing and just wrong?

Located in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the embassy sprawls over 104 acres and is a totally self-sufficient city within a city. While most Iraqis suffer from chronic shortages of electricity and clean drinking water, the complex has its own power plant and fresh water and sewage treatment facilities.

There are also more than 20 buildings, with office space for 1,000 and sleeping quarters for 619. Embassy personnel need never venture onto Baghdad’s mean streets: The complex includes a shopping market, food court, movie theater, beauty salon, gym, swimming pool, tennis courts, a school and a social club.

“Fortress America,” is how one expert describes it.

Even if it you can’t say it’s wrong, it certainly isn’t right, in the face of us claiming to want to bring democracy to the place.  I just cannot reconcile it.

“Although the U.S. government regularly proclaims confidence in Iraq’s democratic future, the United States has designed an embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for their future,” historian Jane Loeffler writes in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

“Instead, the United States has built a fortress capable of sustaining a massive, long-term presence in the face of continued violence.”

The $592-million embassy — with a cost 12 times that of the second largest, in Beijing — is being built by First Kuwait General Trading and Contracting. The Kuwaiti company is under Justice Department investigation for alleged contract fraud on the embassy project. It also has been accused of agreeing to pay $200,000 in kickbacks in return for two unrelated Army contracts.

Hattip to Len at Blogesque.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:56 pm October 1st, 2007 in Foreign Affairs, Government, Military, Politics 

Comments

4 Responses to “Size, existence of gargantuan US Embassy in Iraq is repulsive”

  1. 1 John Spalding on October 2nd, 2007 12:50 am

    It is very sad. I don’t think people listen when others tell them that this is a plan not a war.

    Good find on the article, I haven’t seen any embassy articles in a while.

  2. 2 Jill Miller Zimon on October 2nd, 2007 1:53 pm

    Thanks, John but the kudos really go to Len at Blogesque – I saw his post about it through my Bloglines reader and then went to read it at his blog. Happy to echo and link to him.

  3. 3 Village Green on October 7th, 2007 12:13 am

    That embassy represents GWB and cronies’ certainty that Iraq will be occupied by U$ forces for years to come.

  4. 4 Jill Miller Zimon on October 7th, 2007 10:44 am

    Sigh, Village, you probably do have an idea of how reading your comment makes me feel, but just to say it anyway: you have no idea how much that depresses me.

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