$600 Million Will Buy You An Embassy (In Iraq)

Ryan Crocker, a veteran diplomat, and currently the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, told reporters the other day that diplomatic workers should be able to begin moving into the new embassy in Iraq toward the end of May.

The embassy, a "fortress-like compound" next to the winding Tigris River in the heart of the city and within easy mortar range of the bad guys, is the largest embassy in the world - the size of Vatican City. It has its own security force (Blackwater) and its own power and water supply.

It is not just big physically, but the project has also been a big secret. At one point, a British tabloid claimed that even its location was a secret, which must have surprised the heck out of residents of Baghdad who stood and watched it being built. But until recently, embassy officials have refused to talk about it.

According to a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, the embassy complex consists of 21 buildings on 104 acres. It is within the fortified "Green Zone," a 4-square-mile area that contains a number of U.S. and Iraqi government offices, ringed by miles of concrete barriers.

Over 5,500 Americans and Iraqis work at the embassy, about half being listed as "security." It is much larger than any other U.S. mission in the world. Many Iraqis feel that this massive U.S. presence in the middle of the city symbolizes the power that the U.S. wields over their counry.


Construction of the mammoth facility began in mid-2005 and was originally scheduled to be compled in June of 2007. It is being built on land transferred to the U.S. in October 2004 by the Iraqi interim government, under conditions not disclosed.

The original cost was estimated at over $1 billion. Congress, however, appropriated only $592 million in 2005. A Kuwait builder got most of the money, but other contractors have also been involved. What the real, hidden cost will finally be is anybody's guess.



Last year, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticized the size and the cost of the embassy at a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He pointed out that massiveness of the embassy gives cause for the Iraqis to wonder how long we will be an occupying force in that country.

Certainly, the embassy is a cause of Iraqi resentment. Baghdad was recently rated as the world's worst city in which to live. Americans at the embassy will be living lives of luxury while the citizens of Baghdad try to survive on a little more than 5 hours of electricity per day.

The ambassador's residence alone contains 16,000 square feet. And as noted, the complex will have its own power and water supply, along with a sewage treatment facility and maintenance shops and warehouses. Additionally, the embassy employees will be able to enjoy a huge swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, a gymnasium, movie theater, beauty salon and social club.

One young Iraqi was quoted as saying, "People are very angry. It's for the Americans, not the Iraqis."


Nevertheless, the work is being completed and the move-in has been scheduled. Ambassador Crocker says the buildings are finished, but some have not been certified for permanent occupancy. The biggest problem, though, is that people are not safe, even in the "Green Zone." A recent round of rocket attacks killed several Americans.

Do you think that might be why the State Department has few, if any, volunteers for duty in Iraq and why the State Department has to threaten employees with loss of their jobs if they refuse to go to Iraq?

Crocker said "It's been a difficult few weeks, rockets are bouncing off your buildings, and maintaining focus can be an occasional challenge." Crocker claims that's why they need the security presence of the blackguard Blackwater boys. Things are so precarious that embassy personnel are ordered not to venture outside without helmets and body armor. Crocker says that the embassy personnel could not do their jobs without the protection of the Blackwater people.

Must be rather hard to swim in a helmet and body armor!


Crocker has his job cut out for him! Iraqis are angry about the embassy for many reasons. A major reason is that it was built primarily with imported labor. The main contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, brought in at least one planeload of Filipino construction workers to work in Baghdad after telling them they were going to Dubai.

Furthermore, the embassy compound is a glaring symbol of American imperialism, as well as American isolation and occupation, and "a sign of how little confidence the US has in Iraq's future." Jane Loeffler, wrote this in Foreign Policy magazine: "Encircled by blast walls and cut off from the rest of Baghdad, it stands out like the crusader castles that once dominated the Middle East."

She goes on to say that while embassies are normally built to encourage interaction with the host countries, this one defies that notion. "Although US diplomats will technically be 'in Iraq' they may as well be in Washington."

Edward Peck, a former US ambassador to Iraq, noted that "The embassy is going to have a thousand people hunkered behind sand-bags. I don't know how you conduct diplomacy in that way."


Some questions:

Why has this huge, costly monument to American imperialism not been discussed in detail in the press? Where are the outraged Congressmen and Congresswomen?

Why have our leaders not questioned the need for this huge, costly monument to American imperialism? Could it be that, along with John McCain, everyone expects we'll be bleeding in Iraq for the next 100 years?

Was this massive mess ever vetted by the Congress of the United States? Who's in charge here? How does something like this happen?

Could it just possibly be that this embassy is an investment in the protection of Iraqi oil for the Bush/Cheney oil interests?

Now, aren't you glad that the United States invaded Iraq to bring peace, stability and democracy to that country? And it's only going to cost us about $3 trillion!