Among the ruins of Bahgdad with its burned out shops and homes from numerous suicide bombers, the new American Embassy is officially transferred to the US government today. Situated on 104 acres on the west bank of the Tigris River, it's bigger than Saddam's palace with a cinema, gym, pool, electricity and plentiful, clean running water. It's built on the backs of slaves and is also quite toxic.
Picture credit: Martin Fletcher, UK Times Online
The Times Online tells us it is the only building in Baghdad to be completed on time and on budget in the last 4 years. It is entirely self-sufficient with its own fresh water supply, electricity plant, sewage treatment facility, maintenance shops and warehouses.
"People are very angry," said one young Iraqi. "It’s for the Americans, not for the Iraqis."
There are two office blocks that will house 1,000 staff, six apartment blocks containing 619 one-bedroom units, spacious residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, a school, shopping centre and food court; a swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts; a gymnasium, cinema, beauty salon and social club. This is known because the architects – Berger Devine Yaeger, of Kansas City – posted drawings on its website briefly until the State Department ordered their removal.
In 2003 the president promised he would give the Iraqi people electricity, clean water, new schools and roads, but 4 years later the Iraqi people have one to two hours of electricity a day, hundreds of bodies turning up in their rivers, jobs gone and schools closed, marriages delayed and children mourned, markets bombed and clean water in short supply.
Yes, that young Iraqi was quite correct in that this embassy is for the Americans while the Iraqi people suffer horribly.
Isn't the purpose of an embassy to promote diplomatic relations and services with the host country? How does this embassy with its unheard of luxury and surrounded by fortress like walls help the average Iraqi; to whom is this an embassy to?
With an operating cost of 1.2 billion a year I think it's safe to say we are not leaving Iraq or the Middle East anytime soon. And just like we didn't go into Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, or to liberate the Iraqi people and make them a democracy, we didn't build this embassy to promote peaceful and friendly relations. It was built to make sure we never lose control of what Iraq has an abundance of - oil. Plus, what a convenient way to keep an eye on and run counter-intelligence on Iran; how many CIA spooks will work out of this new compound?
I am ashamed to be an American and I have been for a long time now. I would like to apologize to the Iraqi people for my countries imperialistic ambitions. I know my apology does nothing, and I also know my country has had its claws in almost every country where resources could be exploited, but I will continue to try and change it through the electoral process, through voting with my wallet, through writing letters to elected officials and the editor of the paper, through activism, and through blogging.
Yes, I know it is a behemoth and life long battle, which we may never win, but through my shame and outrage I will never give up trying to right the wrongs America has foisted upon the world.