YES, Virginia, there IS an embassy in Iraq!

I've posted about this before but it needs repeating... as long as some Americans are still thinking that our troops are being sent to Iraq to bring democracy to the citizens and the other hooey Bush and Company is trying to sell us... and that it is NOT about "oil" or "Halliburton" or "ego" and so on... well, try selling me that swampland AFTER you acknowledge the following...

YES!!

We are building a permanent embassy in Iraq
and it's the BIGGEST and MOST EXPENSIVE embassy
EVER!!

While the glassy-eyed talk about "schools for the children" and "purple fingers" etc. to justify their need for our loved ones to be blown into hamburger or come back missing limbs or having screaming nightmares in the night... they neglect to mention the "21 buildings on 104 acres" employing "5,500 Americans and Iraqis...almost half listed as security" and who "rarely venture out into the 'Red Zone'.”

It "has been under construction since mid-2005 with a target completion date of June 2007". Sound familiar yet?

How about THESE observations?

...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.

And how much will it cost us?

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.

Does anybody know which companies are building this embassy?

The lead contractor on the embassy project is a Kuwaiti firm, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, Higgins said. There are also five U.S. subcontractors, but he would not name them for security reasons.

I don't think we'd need to have security clearance to guess who they are...

So, I beg of you, those who want to slap at me for not believing the hogwash that we are in Iraq ...

• Because of 9/11
• To protect us from terrorists...
• To protect us from WMDs
• To protect us from Islamic fascists
• Because Saddam is our enemy
• Because we need Iraq to have a democracy
• Because we need to rebuild Iraq
• Or whatever flimsy justification that hasn’t been debunked yet or just doesn’t hold water…

Remember... follow the money ... and you'll probably find your answers.

Sources:

MSNBC
Times Online (UK)
Washington Post
USA Today

More observations at:
Common Dreams

One more thing...

Iraq may be facing a deadly civil war, but the Iraqi government is initiating major, costly repairs to its diplomatic building in Washington and expanding its real estate holdings here.
[Full article here...]