Take A Look At The US Embassy In Baghdad

[Jcrowley]

How Much Embassy Is Too Much?
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 2, 2007; Page A11


Mention the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Lawrence Eagleburger and he explodes.

"I defy anyone to tell me how you can use that many people. It is nuts . . . it's insane and it's counterproductive . . . and it won't work," says the Republican former secretary of state and member of the Iraq Study Group. "I've been around the State Department long enough to know you can't run an outfit like that."

The nerve center of Iraq reconstruction efforts, housed in an ornate former Saddam Hussein palace with soaring ceilings and its own espresso bar, the embassy in Baghdad is one of the largest foreign missions ever operated by the State Department. Its complexity and expense, some say, hampers reconstruction efforts and drains cash from diplomatic efforts worldwide.

According to a State Department count, about 1,000 federal employees report to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, not including hundreds of private contractors. State Department personnel are assigned to roughly half the slots in Baghdad, and the rest are reserved for an array of agencies, including about 90 from the Justice Department, 20 from the Department of Homeland Security, and four each from the Commerce Department and the Transportation Department. They are needed, officials say, to rebuild transit and mail services, to assist small businesses, to advise politicians and peasants.

The mission's closely guarded budget is a source of controversy at State, and across the federal government. At $923 million for the 2006 fiscal year, the budget was 20 times that of the Beijing embassy's that year, according to the State Department. More than two-thirds of the money pays for security. Salaries for about 600 staff from other federal agencies are not included in that figure, nor are some expenses.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101497.html

[EFerrari]

1. But they can't clean up mouse droppings at Walter Read.

Nice going, BFEE!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Hope the re-inforced the roof so the

46's and 53's can land up there when we go.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. looks like a nice

casino.

[originalpckelly]

4. WTF? It's pretty, but what the fuck is up with the eagle?

Looks like something out of Rome/the Third Reich.

Looks like a fucking palace or something.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. Yeah, that eagle . . .

. . . is a little too Hitleresque for me.

These bastards are fucking insane!

[originalpckelly]

9. I know, it's a very very weird sort of thing.

Very imperial looking.

[ixion]

11. yep, I thought that, too

very Naziesque.

[Jcrowley]

15. It is

Here's another look at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Well, a corner of it at least. It's actually the National Palace (formerly known as the Republican Palace during Saddam Hussein's regime).

Now I believe the palace the US is using as its embassy at present is not to be the ultimate headquarters for The Imperium. I believe that structure is to be the following:


Is that correct?

[formercia]

53. Origin of the 'Eagle'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Germany

The origins of the Reich eagle (adler), referred to in German as the Reichsadler, on German soil probably date back to the time of Charlemagne (742-814). Around the year 1200 the black eagle on a gold field was generally recognised as the imperial coat of arms. In 1433 the double-headed eagle was adopted for the first time by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Since then the double-headed eagle came to be used as the symbol of the Roman-German emperor, and hence as the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. From the middle of the 15th century onwards, the respective emperors put the emblem of their dynasty on the eagle's chest.


Just a little Crusader touch...:sarcasm:

[GreenZoneLT]

54. It is a palace. A Baathist palace.

The current embassy is housed in the Republican Palace, part of Saddam's huge governmental complex that now makes up the International, aka Green, Zone.

The new embassy is about ten times bigger, and is less than a year away from completion.

[merh]

79. Oh, so the palace they are using now isn't big enough?

They are building a bigger "palace" as a symbol to our occupation and control.

[WillyT]

87. Now Where Have I Seen That Before, Hmmm...

Oh yeah... The entrance to Dachau.



Well that just about sums it up, don't it?

:wtf:

[leftchick]

5. bigger and better than anything Saddam had

and the US has electricity while Baghdad does not. I am sure that is how the Iraqis view this imperial palace.

[Laurier]

44. Not really

It's not bigger and better than Saddam had. It is actually one of Saddam's palaces that the US took over after the ill-conceived invastion of Iraq.

Still, it's wrong for the US to occupy it as an embassy building, in my opinion.

[leftchick]

52. I know it is an ex palace of Saddams

it makes it even more despicable. I stand by what I said, I am certain it has many more accouterments than Saddam ever dreamed of. Lets start with the separate electric grid from Baghdad.

[GreenZoneLT]

59. Well, "grid" is a bit overstating it.

It's not like we built a full-size electrical plant and substation. It's powered by a bunch of big ol' diesel generators, each the size of a railroad container. That's actually how most Iraqis in Baghdad get their power now, since the official power only works an hour or two a day. The telephone poles are festooned with these spiderwebs of electrical cable, and every few houses is a "generator man" with a gasoline-powered Honda generator, who sells power to his neighbors.

We give away hundreds of generators, too, so it's not like we're hogging all the power.

I think we've screwed up the electricity policy. Parts of Iraq that never had power now have more power than Baghdad, while Baghdad has a fraction of what it had. That was a decision we made very early in the occupation, to spread the wealth away from Saddam's favored few, and it's really backfired politically with the Iraqis.

[leftchick]

63. overstating eh?

:eyes:

It is also nice to know "we" give out hundreds of generators to a city of several million people who also struggle to get fuel daily. I am so not impressed....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article712424.ece

<snip>

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call “George W’s palace” rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects’ claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

[GreenZoneLT]

66. OK, not to defend the indefensible giant embassy, but that's a hack job

That Times story has no quotes to back up the claims of what everybody on the street is saying, although it's probably accurate. And this is totally over the top:

After roughing it in Saddam’s abandoned palaces, diplomats should have every comfort in their new home. There will be impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions.

We've already got those "restaurants" in the parking lot next to the PX. That's Pizza Inn, Burger King, a now-defunct coffee shop and a now-defunct gyro place. They might get McDonald's, KFC and another coffee shop in the new embassy food court. A bit of a stretch to call it "delicacies." I'll take the local bread, pickles and kebabs any day.

[leftchick]

72. I will take this "hack job" reporting

over an anonymous poster on the internet any day. And you failed to address the generator misinformation in your post. Did you not read the article?

<snip>

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

[Poiuyt]

6. They are calling it George W's Palace

Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told that the bill for the embassy was $592 million (£312 million).

The heavily guarded 42-hectare (104-acre) site — which will have a 15ft thick perimeter wall — has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Local residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff and is busing them in from a temporary camp nearby.

After roughing it in Saddam’s abandoned palaces, diplomats should have every comfort in their new home. There will be impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions.

more -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article712424.ece

[vssmith]

70. On time...On budget

"the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget"

Halliburton must not be involved then--right?

[Joanne98]

89. George W Bush "King of Babylon" And they say he's not the anti-christ.

[dkofos]

8. $923 million and I guarantee you it will not be BOMB PROOF

But to the repubes it's only money. Hell they piss away more than
that every week fighting the war on terra.

Bastards

[halobeam]

10. Lovely. Starving US citizens, literally, and building a palace for the war lords.

Disgusting.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. Starving Iraqis, too, and they have to look at it all the time

[Laurier]

45. They didn't build it.

They took it over from Saddam. But it's still disgusting, in my opinion, that the US is occupying it.

[loudsue]

51. Saddam's palace is the OLD embassy, currently in the "green zone"

There is a picture of the NEW embassy they are building in post #6 on this thread. It's a HUGE white (republican) elephant.

:kick:

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. This picture and article should be passed around to the WR patients who were living in squalor.

Wanna see outrage?

Why don't they go all the way and spend another measly $77 million and make it an even BILLION? With the 600 employees added to that figure, it probably DOES hit the BILLION dollar mark. sheesh. This is obscene.

I was wondering how long it would be before this embassy was exposed. Eagleburger is probably the reason it has been exposed now. I'm glad someone finally spoke out about it. How many journalists have lived/do live in the Green Zone where this embassy is and have never shown a picture or written a report about it? ALL of them.:grr: They must have been ordered to keep their mouths shut...just like the WR patients were. This is sickening.

[Poiuyt]

16. More than the U.S. patients. This is a tribute to Western excess

It's really rubbing it in to the citizens of Iraq. We're supposed to be rebuilding the city and the only thing getting accomplished is the construction of Bush's palace

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. I know it. Imagine a Iraqi citizen walking into that place after he just left his home

with no clean water or electricity. If one Iraqi knows about that embassy, you know the word has spread throughout the country. It's no wonder they hate us.

It's sickening.

[tex-wyo-dem]

23. No Iraqi citizen can probably get within a quarter mile of the place...

before getting cut down by U.S. fire...unless, of course, you're a very well connected Iraqi.

[Mnemosyne]

21. Better yet, show them to those fighting in this insanity - better to

know ahead of time what they can look forward to if/when they come home seriously wounded.

I wonder how motivated anyone could feel knowing your CIC is a liar and a war criminal. Is it "just" another war crime? Against our own troops. :grr::nuke:

[sanskritwarrior]

35. Most of us that have served in Baghdad

have been there in one way or another. In a yer's tour only 70% of soldiers get 2 weeks of leave due to mission requirements. The remaining 30% take in country R&R in Kurdistan or in this place.....One of my guys has pictures of the gold plates the embassy staff and soldiers on R&R eat off of........

[Mnemosyne]

91. I hope you have been able to get everything you needed there and

most especially now in the States.

Gold plates! :grr:

I'm sorry. :hug:

[Vinca]

13. All that and only 6 Arabic speakers. nt

[GreenZoneLT]

60. That's not really true

There were at one time six Arabic translators working directly for the embassy, and that number fluctuates, but there are a ton of other agencies other than the embassy that have translators, most of them contractors. There are several dozen at least who work in the IZ.

[Vinca]

81. Better tell these people -

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06193252.htm

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Among the 1,000 people who work in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, only 33 are Arabic speakers and only six speak the language fluently, according to the Iraq Study Group report released on Wednesday.

"All of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans' lack of knowledge of language and cultural understanding," the bipartisan panel said in its report. "In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communication with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage."

[malaise]

14. It will turn out to be the biggest white elephant

in history. A fitting tribute to Rethug madness.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Will Elvis be playing there? Is it only for high-rollers from Texas?

[butterfly77]

25. Maybe, John Asscroft...

will sing his signature song"When the eagle flies":rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[nam78_two]

20. K&R.nt

[tex-wyo-dem]

22. This is outrageous...

of course, totalitarian empires tend to build extravagent structures such as this in countries/areas that they conquer...it's an expression of dominance over the native peoples of the area.

Nothing, however, last forever...



The Temple of Bel at Palmyra, Syria (Roman)

[AnnInLa]

24. Looks kinda like my house

NOT.

Wonder how many homeless people could live in there?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

26. I feel so ill looking at this. What the hell

is this nation (U.S.) representing? God, I am disgusted and feel very unclean in my soul. This is wrong on so many levels.

[butterfly77]

27. I feel this way anytime I...

turn on the television and listen at the news...

[CrazyOrangeCat]

28. They are truly Nazis, aren't they?

They're slicker than the Nazis were, though.

Just a sickening image . . .

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

29. tony snow denied its existence

a week or so ago during white house briefing.

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. LOL! OMG...I can't wait to hear him spin this one! Caught in ANOTHER lie!

What's new? Same shit, different day.

[Swede]

30. Does it have a helicopter pad on the roof? You know,for the big escape.

[amandabeech]

49. Give it 2 or 3 years.

Very nostalgic photos.

I think that if more of the nuts that okayed this thing in Iraq had been in combat, we wouldnt be there now.

Haven't we figure out that the U.S. regular military isn't good at fighting guerillas and other people's civil wars?

Or that the U.S. citizenry has no stomach for anything that's not quick unless we've been attacked?

Or that we can't really do anything without a draft and if the war's not important enough to support a draft, then we probably shouldn't do it?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

69. that is not the embassy rooftop

it's a cia chopper on top of an apartment building in saigon. one of the myths about viet nam.

[Swede]

74. You'll have to take that up with Time magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2000/0424/history.vietnam.html

[Earth_First]

32. Peasants?!

The official U.S. Government statement is that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is to assist the "peasant" population?

"They are needed, officials say, to rebuild transit and mail services, to assist small businesses, to advise politicians and peasants."

Unbelievable!

[alfredo]

33. We can build imperial palaces but can't put our wounded soldiers in

safe, clean, rooms.


From last year:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-04-19-us-embassy_x.htm

[Laurier]

47. We didn't build it.

It was one of Saddam's palaces and we took it over to use as a US embassy building. I think it's in extremely poor taste that the US is using it as such, but the US didn't build it and I don't think it does us any good to spread falsehoods about stuff like this. It's disgusting enough as it is without adding falsehoods to the story.

[alfredo]

48. That's just one building in a much larger complex. I didn't

say we built that particular building. It is rather tacky to use that building, but not as bad as moving the operations headquarters into the Republican Palace. "Read Imperial Life in the Emerald City." It will illustrate quite clearly why we are in the fix were in.

Read this:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-04-19-us-embassy_x.htm

Giant U.S. embassy rising in Baghdad
Posted 4/19/2006 12:51 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |



THE SITE HAS 21 STRUCTURES

U.S. diplomatic employees in Iraq are to move next year to a multimillion-dollar complex that will be among the largest U.S. embassies. The facility is slated for completion June 2007.

New office building: Includes classified activities
New office annex: For public diplomacy staff, consular affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development
Interim office building: Designed for future use as a school
General services annex: Facilities management, break areas, staff locker rooms
Recreation building: Gym, exercise room, swimming pool, locker rooms, the American Club, commissary, food court, barber and beauty shop
Six staff apartment buildings: Each has one bedroom apartments
Residences for the chief and deputy chief of mission
Marine security guard quarters
Remaining buildings are dedicated to security, vehicle maintenance and facilities management, storage, utilities, and water and wastewater treatment


By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
Three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.
The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

[vogonity]

34. That eagle above the entrance...

Someone PLEASE tell me we didn't put that eagle above the entrance. That it was somehow already there. That nazi-like shit is FREAKING ME THE FUCK OUT.

I am speechless.

[GreenZoneLT]

55. We didn't. That's one of Saddam's palaces.

The article is about the size of the mission, not the building. The building we inherited from Saddam.

Now, there have been other articles about the NEW embassy, which is 10 times bigger than the Republican palace where the embassy is currently housed. That's a scandal in itself, but it doesn't feature fascist eagles.

[leftchick]

58. "The building we inherited from saddam"??

are you fucking serious? The US occupiers stole it like everything else in Iraq. for cripes sakes. :puke:

[GreenZoneLT]

68. Well, the Iraqi government owns it.

Better to say the "building DESIGN we inherited from Saddam," The fascist eagles and whatnot. Although that palace is actually pre-Saddam; it's Baathist but not Saddamist in origin. Baathists are just Arab-supremacist fascists, of course.

I guess you could accurately say we stole it from Saddam, but we have a temporary lease on it at the moment, with the acquiescence of the elected government. You can criticize the way that government came about, but it's certainly more legitimate than Saddam's government ever was.

[leftchick]

73. it is fascinating

to see the qualifiers in all of your posts. The verbal gymnastics you go through to ultimately defend the US occupying a country that never posed a threat to us or its neighbors. Fascinating in a weird way.

[truth2power]

78. If Saadam's govt was illegitimate..

why did WE put him in power? Just another one of our giant fuck-ups, I guess.

These edifices are obscene. I don't care who built them. And the present Iraqi government is a puppet of of Cheney/Bush. At the point that they don't sign on to the Production Sharing Agreements to give Western corporations virtually all the profits from the PEOPLE'S oil, we'll get rid of them, too.

Anyone who supports this shit should burn in hell! x(

edit> damn typo :grr:

[Alcibiades]

36. The Nazi comparisons are dead-on

For once. Hussein, like Hitler, had a thing for building big. When we went into Berlin at the end of WWII, there were certain Nazi-era structures that we knew we wanted and had deliberately left intact--(i.e. the Tempelhof airport), and these were used continuously during the Cold War. I wouldn't be shocked if they military chose to not bomb a few palaces they had their eyes on. I'd also not be surprised if these palaces were some of the few buildings protected from looters in the aftermath of the "liberation."

As others have noted, we had a big embassy in Saigon as well. These structures reveal the so-called autonomy of the client to be a lie. Eagleburger is right. There is no legitimate diplomatic or even security reason for such a large embassy: the embassy needs to be that big to house what will be the de facto government of Iraq.

The irony is that, now that Bush appears to have scheduled the end of the war for October of 2008, such an imperialistic structure may not even be used for its intended purpose.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

37. This is so inappropriate and undiplomatic

What must the average Iraqi who drives by that place think? What will they be thinking in the years to come? We invade their country, remove their government, set up a new government, remove their dictator from his palaces and then claim one of them as our own. This is a terrible symbol. We should be doing everything in our power not to appear as though we are trying to run the Arab world and tell them what to do.

[GreenZoneLT]

61. Average Iraqis can't drive past it.

It's in the Green Zone, isolated from normal traffic. Average Iraqis bitch about how it takes longer to get around, but they don't actually look at the embassy.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

86. I can't believe your response to my post

That's it? They can't see the door so it doesn't matter to the average Iraqi and they only bitch about the increased traffic?

Do you honestly think it matters whether they can actually see the door from where they drive? Do you think it matters whether or not they can see the U.S. Ambassador walking down marble-tiled floors inside where Saddam once walked? So if they can't actually see the door, they don't even know it's there? Therefore they don't understand the symbolism? This was Saddam's country and now it's ours. This was Saddam's palace and now it's ours. If the White House was taken over by a foreign power that tried to reorganize U.S. society and U.S. citizens could only drive by at a distance, do you not think they would KNOW it's there and understand what terrible symbol it represents?

[file83]

38. I've done some Googling, and it seems that this particular structure was built by Saddam

Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/3x2xhz



Says this photo was taken in Sept 2004. You can see the eagle logo at the upper right...

Caption: The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Well, a corner of it at least. It's actually the National Palace (formerly known as the Republican Palace during Saddam Hussein's regime).

My interpretation of that is that it was built by Saddam, what do you think?

So, maybe that Eagle isn't designed by one of our neo-con fascist overlords, but there is still hope...just look at all the construction going on behind those embassy walls...

[leeroysphitz]

39. A palace fit for the Viceroy of our new Middle Eastern possesions...

[file83]

40. It's Newt!!

They mostly come out at night, mostly.

[leeroysphitz]

42. MOSTLY.

[soulcore]

76. Mommy always told me there weren't any real mosters....

but there are. ;)

[file83]

77. Aaaa-firmative

*salute*

[me b zola]

41. .

k&r

[progressoid]

43. It's this shit that has kept me in a permanent depression for the last 6 years.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

88. I know of what you speak.

I am still unclear if it is a heightened awareness to the greater psyche of this nation, or an inability to wrestle my focus away to dispel the depression. In any case, I loathe what I have witnessed. Both the actions, and the inactions. :hug:

[JackRiddler]

46. A clear evocation of Imperial Rome (and a touch of the Nazis). No way to be more obvious. n/t

[K8-EEE]

50. You Got That Right Jack!! Monument To BushCo's Shameless Evil

Monumnental rip off, to both the Iraqis and the US taxpayers...

[GreenZoneLT]

57. Well, the Nazi comparison is apt, but Saddam built it.

It's a former Baathist palace, not something we built. We're building an enormous white elephant just down the road, but it doesn't feature Naziesque architecture.

[JackRiddler]

75. Thanks for the clarification.

Should have occurred to me, and of course the appropriation of classicist Islamic architectural elements is also obvious. But the Roman/Nazi influences are dominant.

By the way, from another thread, in which you supported the privatization of Iraqi oil resources: Are you actually working in the Green Zone, as your name suggests? If so, what can you tell us about your activities? (Not anything classified, of course.)

[SalmonChantedEvening]

56. "We're wasting money over there, so we don't have to spend it wisely here"

:grr: :mad: :puke:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

62. That eagle reminds me of Nazi symbolism. BTW..it is OUTRAGEOUS that all that money

was spent on this.

[BeyondGeography]

64. Hopefully, whichever Dem we elect in 2008 has the courage to tear up these plans

or, if the building is complete, to trade the land with the Iraqis for something more appropriate.

[GreenZoneLT]

67. You'd have to think they would

I'm just not sure what the Iraqis will do with it. It's enormous. It made all sorts of sense when they planned it, I guess, in the post-coital glow of Mission Accomplished. Back then, it was going to be the hub of our benevolent hegemony in the Middle East, a showplace for Truth, Freedom and the American Way in the center of a vibrant, economically humming Hong Kong on the Tigris. I'm guessing they figured we'd be taking Tehran and/or Damascus about the time it opened in the fall of 2007.

Even the delusional neocons can't justify an Iraqi embassy with EIGHT THOUSAND employees any more. Especially since the Iraqi Shiites are going to kick us out just as soon as they win the civil war. It will get used in the short term, but mainly to house troops.

[trumad]

65. .

[NDP]

71. Well, oil executives need to be comfortable

[teryang]

80. Someday the US facilities will be a memorial to war crimes

There will be photos of the dead and tortured. The maimed children. Memomentos from Abu Ghraid. Wax recreations of US personnel torturing Iraqi civilians and breaking into their homes and terrorizing them. Defused DU munitions, blown up hummers, yellow cluster bomblets, etc.

It will be facility of which Americans can be proud.

[ShortnFiery]

82. Disgusting - Imperial Excess + *a target* that will be blown up 100x over in the future. :( n/t

[ShortnFiery]

83. Very much like Hitler's formal Third Reich's Nazi Eagle ...

save for Iraq's USA Embassy's Eagle's head is pointed to the RIGHT. :grr:



http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/neo-nazi_eagle_swastika.asp



May a just God have mercy on the blood soaked souls of the NeoConservatives presently within The Unitary Executive ... and their Ghoulish Enablers. :cry:

[Hubert Flottz]

84. That's why the disabled war veterans are sleeping with rats and

roaches.

[LuckyLib]

85. I particularly like the part about the folks who will "advise politicians and peasants."

How's that workin' for ya?

[Tom Joad]

90. I hope someday very soon the Iraqis are able to transform this building

into something useful, and a future US embassy is permitted in a small room adjoining a Falafel shop.
A little humility would go a long way.