On the bedside table:
Fort Apache Baghdad
The “fortified Green Zone” in the heart of one of Islam’s sacred cities is antagonizing enough to millions of Iraqis and Muslims worldwide; now we go and rub salt in their wounds, with typical John Wayne bravado, by building a sparkling new multi-million dollar embassy smack dab in the middle of it all. This is no ordinary embassy mind you-- no, this will be the biggest US embassy in the world—a sprawling 21 building complex—which will house a small army of diplomats and bureaucrats. It will also serve as a depressing reminder to Iraqis of their country’s new foreign administrators. To top it off, with typical disregard for appearances, the lucrative contract to build this mega-monstrosity was given to a firm from, of all places, Kuwait-- the country, along with the US, that millions of Iraqis hold most responsible for their misery and ruin. Nice touch.
Add all of the other forts and checkpoints we're constructing throughout the country and, well-- pretty humiliating huh? Not exactly the behavior of people who are planning on leaving soon.
Here is what Niccolo Machiavelli had to say about such matters in The Prince:
CHAPTER XX
Are Fortresses, And Many Other Things To Which Princes Often Resort, Advantageous Or Hurtful?
“For this reason the best possible fortress is — not to be hated by the people, because, although you may hold the fortresses, yet they will not save you if the people hate you, for they will never be wanting for foreigners to assist a people who have taken arms against you. It has not been seen in our times that such fortresses have been of use to any prince, unless to the Countess of Forli, when the Count Girolamo, her consort, was killed; for by that means she was able to withstand the popular attack and wait for assistance from Milan, and thus recover her state; and the posture of affairs was such at that time that the foreigners could not assist the people. But fortresses were of little value to her afterwards when Cesare Borgia attacked her, and when the people, her enemy, were allied with foreigners. Therefore it would have been safer for her, both then and before, not to have been hated by the people than to have had the fortresses. All these things considered then, I shall praise him who builds fortresses as well as him who does not, and I shall blame whoever, trusting in them, cares little about being hated by the people.”
Turnabout is fair play:
Construction Woes Add to Fears at Embassy in Iraq
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 5, 2007; A01
U.S. diplomats in Iraq, increasingly fearful over their personal safety after recent mortar attacks inside the Green Zone, are pointing to new delays and mistakes in the U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad as signs that their vulnerability could grow in the months ahead…
A toughly worded cable sent from the embassy to State Department headquarters on May 29 highlights a cascade of building and safety blunders in a new facility to house the security guards protecting the embassy. The guards' base, which remains unopened today, is just a small part of a $592 million project to build the largest U.S. embassy in the world…
The main builder of the sprawling, 21-building embassy is First Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Co., a Middle Eastern firm that is already under Justice Department scrutiny over alleged labor abuses. First Kuwaiti also erected the guard base, prompting some State Department officials in Washington and Baghdad to worry that the problems exposed in the camp suggest trouble lurking ahead for the rest of the embassy complex.
The first signs of trouble, according to the cable, emerged when the kitchen staff tried to cook the inaugural meal in the new guard base on May 15. Some appliances did not work. Workers began to get electric shocks. Then a burning smell enveloped the kitchen as the wiring began to melt…
All the food from the old guard camp -- a collection of tents -- had been carted to the new facility, in the expectation that the 1,200 guards would begin moving in the next day. But according to the cable, the electrical meltdown was just the first problem in a series of construction mistakes that soon left the base uninhabitable, including wiring problems, fuel leaks and noxious fumes in the sleeping trailers…
"Poor quality construction . . . life safety issues . . . left [the embassy] with no recourse but to shut the camp down, in spite of the blistering heat in Baghdad," the May 29 cable informed Washington….
After the electrical problem was discovered and no quick fix seemed available, the embassy was forced to serve the guards MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) for several days until all the food could be moved back to the old housing, known as Camp Jackson, according to the embassy cable's detailed account. The original plan was for the guards to wait only one or two weeks before the electrical issues were fixed…
But the problems mounted. The 252 prefabricated residential trailers, with either two or three rooms each, filled with formaldehyde fumes. The trailer manufacturer, a Saudi company called Red Sea Housing Services Co., confirmed to the embassy it had used the toxic chemical in preparing the housing. Red Sea told the embassy to keep the windows open and use charcoal in the rooms to absorb the odor, but "the fumes are still prevalent," the cable said...
Fire Hazards
The reworked wiring "is still substandard," the cable said. The embassy also said that it believes it has discovered counterfeit wiring, labeled as 10mm when it was actually 6mm.
Finally, on May 25, a hazardous-materials expert discovered that all 10 generators had developed leaks. The fuel tanks were installed without corrosion protection or leak detectors, and fuel had begun to saturate the soil around the tanks. The cable said that Teflon tape designed for water pipes had been used on the fuel tanks, and that such tape "will dissolve on contact with diesel fuel..
The result, the cable concluded, is that the guards will continue to stay in "tents and deplorable living conditions." Officials now say that the guard base will not be ready until Aug. 1.
<excerpted>
“He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.” -Benjamin Franklin
Contractors Testify on Conditions at Baghdad Construction Project July 26, 2007
The LA Times reports: "Downtime is rare for troops in Iraq, but when missions slow down, troops go shopping, and on-base shopping has come a long way since the first PXs..."[Read More]
The ugly face of Imperialism! Apparently the Bush Administration has
learned nothing from British colonialism. (The quote from Machivelli was
very apropriate to the construction of the American embassy in Baghdad) As
usual a very good "socio-philosophical" post!