One building that's been built on time and on budget in Iraq: America's fortress embassy

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2084288,00.html

· Vatican-sized bomb-proof structure to cost £300m
· Builders in Green Zone already insurgent targets

Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday May 21, 2007
The Guardian


When the idea of building a new US embassy in Baghdad was first mooted by the American administration in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, there seemed to be a grandiose logic to it.

The compound, by the side of the Tigris, would be a statement of President Bush's intent to expand democracy through the Middle East. Yesterday, however, the entire project was under fresh scrutiny as new details emerged of its cost and scale.

Rising from the dust of the city's Green Zone it is destined, at $592m (£300m), to become the biggest and most expensive US embassy on earth when it opens in September.

It will cover 104 acres (42 hectares) of land, about the size of the Vatican. It will include 27 separate buildings and house about 615 people behind bomb-proof walls. Most of the embassy staff will live in simple, if not quite monastic, accommodation in one-bedroom apartments. snip

But commentators and Iraq experts believe the project was flawed from its inception, and have raised concerns it will become an enormous, heavily targeted white elephant that will be an even greater liability if and when the Americans scale back their presence in Iraq.

[seemslikeadream]

1. opens in September.

September

[EFerrari]

6. I know. n/t

[laura888]

2. An obvious clue: we're not going anywhere

To everyone except Amerika, its the clincher that seals the deal. We're here to stay.

[theoldman]

3. But who would want to live or work there?

You would be a sitting duck. Maybe it could be used to store grain.

[amandabeech]

4. I hope that it has several heliocopter landing pads on the roof.

We need to be prepared for the inevitable.

Maybe the Iranians will move in when we're gone.

Just a thought.

[laura888]

5. Let them figure it out

Iraq and Iran have been at odds since the British carved up their land.

Let's let them duke it out. It's not our problem.

[amandabeech]

8. I agree.

Iraq is a botch job done by the British after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Iranians hate the British, and I mean Hate, because of their shenanigans in this region of the world.

It was never meant to be a country with the borders that it now has and we'll never change it.

I don't like Poppy Bush one bit, but I have to hand it to him for refusing to take down Hussein. He listened to the locals, who hated Hussein, but were terrified of the prospect of a liberated Iraq.

[Cobalt-60]

7. Its a Crusader Castle

Meant to terrorize and intimidate the natives.
They may get medieval and undermine it.