Iraq Green Zone Construction Boom

RAQ: Green Zone Construction Boom

In Baghdad, the United States is now building a monument to rank with Grand Coulee Dam, the Pentagon, Disney World and the Mall of America. It has elements of all four, plus a 15-foot stone wall and surface-to-air missiles.

by David Sarasohn, Oregonian
May 3rd, 2006

Despite what everyone says, it's just not true that this generation of Americans is not building massive monuments to leave as our timeless legacy to our posterity.

We're just not building them here.

But in Baghdad, the United States is now building a monument to rank with Grand Coulee Dam, the Pentagon, Disney World and the Mall of America. It has elements of all four, plus a 15-foot stone wall and surface-to-air missiles.

It's the new American embassy in Iraq, the biggest U.S. embassy anywhere, maybe the biggest embassy anywhere ever. According to the Associated Press and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the embassy area will cover 104 acres -- 10 times the size of a typical U.S. embassy space, six times the size of the United Nations compound in New York, and about the area of Vatican City, which is its own country.

The embassy takes in 21 buildings, including six apartment buildings; power generator, water source and purification plant; a recreation building with swimming pool, gym and food court; five high-security entrances plus an emergency entrance/exit.

It is, to use a phrase popular with the Bush backers a while ago and less widely used now, the embassy of an empire. Expressing the deepest aspirations of the United States at this moment in history, it's kind of a cross between Caesar Augustus and Donald Trump.

It's also a clear statement -- a literally concrete statement -- that the United States plans to be a dominant presence in Iraq for a long time.

At its beginning,
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13538

Just one of many things we have the neocons to thank for.

Not a very good way to win Iraqi hearts and minds, having this opulent castle sitting in the middle of their country while they make do without security, jobs, and utilities.