“Baghdad is a city
of ruins – of burnt-out homes, of shops wrecked by suicide bombs, of the crumbling shells of Saddam-era palaces and ministries destroyed by smart bombs in the US invasion of 2003.
There is one notable exception. It is probably the only big new building project in the capital in the past four years. It is the new US Embassy on the west bank of the Tigris which the contractors will transfer to the US Government officially today.”
This 104 acre, $600,000,000 fortress makes a statement about American priorities and intentions.
TheZoo 
“This 104 acre, $600,000 fortress makes a statement about American priorities and intentions.”
And that statement is: The American occupiers will live better than Saddam did, while the Iraqi people will be worse off.
The mortars begin flying in 3…2…1…
Nothing says “Occupation” better than a compound with air conditioning throughout, swimming pools, jacuzzis, tennis courts and…
INCOMING!!
At $600,000 – that was a steal! Did someone leave out a zero or two?
walttheman – oooops … fixed (blush)
$600,000 – that was a steal — per square foot/?
“$600,000 – that was a steal — per square foot/?”
Per acre.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Perhaps, some long lost Nigerian billionaire footed the cost from funds he left in the US and could only realize a fraction of if they were funneled through the US Treasury. Just supply a bank id and account number and all will be golden. That could explain the current budget deficit.
GEE! We did not invade and occupy Iraq for OUR purposes, just to rid the country of WMD’s and then we leave. So, we just build a temporary facility for $600,000,000.
Sounds about right …… assuming we gave the no-bid contract to Halliburton.
What part of this doesn’t compute?
If you want to relate what a million dollars looks like, imagine a cube of boxed PCs 30 feet per side. 600 million is like a cube of boxed PCs 248 feet on a side.
Welcome, Upside00. 🙂
Three things that I would like to see changed:
No more no-bid contracts. Period. All government contracts must be put up for competitive bidding. All of them.
No more cost-plus contracts. If you want to take in US taxpayer money, then you have to tell us what it will cost us and that’s it. After that, it’s up to you to complete the work you promised us on time and with no additional money. If you finish early, you can have the whole dollar amount that you bid it out for.
Lastly, all contracts should be awarded only to companies officially headquartered in the country in which the work is being performed. If you’re going to get a contract to do work inside the US, then your company bettered be headquartered inside the US, and paying its taxes, too. If we’re going to build an embassy (or some other building) in another country, then we owe the citizens of that country the opportunity to have the jobs and income from that work. Halliburton, headquartered in the Caymen Islands, should not be getting contracts to do work in Iraq that Iraqis should be given the chance to do.
That’s just how I feel about it.
Wayne A. Schneider
Up until the Reagan era, most military contracts were fixed bid. The only glaring exceptions were those that came out of Lockheed’s Skunk Works.
But, then, the U2 is still flying.
Amybody have a cost on the re-building of the Embassy in Tanzania?
It would be nice for cost comparison.
That would be interesting to see.
The Fiscal Year 1999 emergency security appropriation of $1.4 billion
provided for such things as creating temporary embassies in Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam, expanding local guard coverage, upgrading emergency
radio communications to all posts and, among other things, providing
assistance to Kenya and Tanzania.
Maybe this can help us with perspective.
I find it embarrassing and shameful that while in the Green Zone and in this embassy we will have clean running water and electricity 24/7, along with food and entertainment.
I even heard in one news account that you could count on one hand all the people employed at the embassy who actually spoke fluent Arabic. I am really hoping that is no longer true. It would totally underline the fact that we aren’t there for the Iraqis, we are there for us. No wonder they resent us and want us to leave so bad. By the looks of this monstrosity of an embassy, we’re NEVER leaving. I don’t believe they EVER planned to leave.
For a great article on the scandalous private contractors in Iraq…check out the Rolling Stone Magazine on line. Just google ” the great Iraq swindle”.
Outrageous!
Badger, thanks for the link. I just watched the video. OMG is all I have to say.. I am stunned yet again.
“Maybe this can help us with perspective.” – hacker bob
It would be interesting to have a detailed breakdown, but from context it appears that the $600M figure for the Iraq embassy relates to construction and facilities. By contrast, your example of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam includes a lot of other things, including foreign aid (“providing assistance to Kenya and Tanzania.”
I’m not sure we’re comparing apples to apples.
“The presence of a massive U.S. Embassy—by far the largest in the world—co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country.” The State Department spokesman, Justin Higgins, defends its size: “It’s somewhat self-evident that there’s going to be a fairly sizable commitment to Iraq by the U.S. government in all forms for several years.”
hacker Bob,
welcome.
I see the change in you.
Briseadh na Faire
Badger, from your link:
“we created a system where catastrophic failure paid just as well as success, and we got exactly what we paid for.”
I disagree. We paid for a system where catastrophic failure paid better than success.
If you take the profit out of war, there will be no more war.
That’s what it was designed to do from the start.
If you get a chance read What a Coincidence on my blog. I’ld like your take on it.
got a link to your blog?
There is a great article in Alternet about the profiteering opportunities that the occupation of Iraq has provided to -who else?- the usual suspects:
How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins — he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.
The Rip-off in Iraq: You Will Not Believe How Low the War Profiteers Have Gone
The article is a little long, but reading it is definitely time well spent. And try remember at least some of the instances of corruption, cronyism, profiteering, etc., the next time some Bush supporter tells you about how “free markets” and “free enterprise” are going to save Iraq from the chaos.
Hey Zooey,
Thanks for the Welcome. WIll be fun to kick around here!