U.S. diplomats will begin moving into the mammoth new, heavily fortified embassy in Baghdad next month after long delays in the $736 million project — and not a moment too soon.
….S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said Friday that construction is complete at the Vatican-sized compound
…The new embassy will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, with fortified working space for 1,000 people and living quarters for several hundred on a 104-acre site.
…Some of the deficiencies have been blamed on shoddy work by the company hired to build the project, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., for $592 million. Changes to the original design have pushed the cost up by $144 million. [source]
Technically, it’s now 104-acres of pure American soil, and if it’s the size of the Vatican then geographically it qualifies as its own city-state. But in a country where the red, white and blues are the biggest target, this probably couldn’t be anymore conspicuous.
It would be a waste for a building of this magnitude to simply be called “an embassy”. It should have a clever name like “Freedomville” or “Liberty City”.
Something.
(now imagine what that $144 million could have done for Iraqi refugees)
How about “Oilville”? Or “Israel City”? Those were the main reasons Iraq was invaded thanks to President Bush. As far as he is concerned he could care less for the refugees and the rest of the Iraqi civilians living there. In another perspective imagine what $736 million could have done for the homeless people in US? Or better yet the cost of the 5 year war could have done for every American in the US? He could care less!
I suppose they plopped that thing down in their choice of the best locations in town as well? What should we think anymore? It is often embarrassing to be an American.
The Foreign Policy had an article about this embassy last year. It did cost one billion dollars and has a shopping mall and a mivie theater inside it.
It compared the situation of US embassies and embassadors these days to those from the old times. US embassies didn’t use to be that large and isolated from its world in old times, even when they were present in the not-so-friendly countries. Embassadors used to dine in the local restaurant with the local people and intermingle with the local population in that city. It’s quite different now, kinda reflective of the whole foreihn policy of the US itself.
Whoever the architect was, should be taken out behind the chemical tanks and shot.
It’s horrible! And I paid a billion dollars for it?