I blogged about this today too.

You’d think some of the MSM reporters like, ahem, the AP would remember that First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., which miraculously got the no-bid contract to build this monstrosity, was then under criminal investigation for gross human rights abuses committed while building the damn thing.

Good thing for the State Dept. that all of the MSM reporters covering Iraq are now in Gaza somewhere. No one bothers to hit teh Google anymore.

Feh. I agree with Talabani, this embassy is the PERFECT symbol of American-Iraqi relations.

I’m sure that the Iranians and their various Mesopotamian puppets will enjoy the pool and tennis courts after the American staff is airlifted out in a few years.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the neoCons who built this folly hope Obama in 2012 will end up like Carter in 1980,

I thought we just got kicked out of our Saddam palace embassy.  So the Death Star’s online?

That is just the ugliest thing ever.  Why do we need such protection from suicide bombs if the Iraqis love us so for “liberating” them?  Is that the only small smattering of reality that ever made it through the bubble?

They’ve been planning this, thinking that if they waste enough money and build these things, that despite the fact neither the American people nor the Iraqi people want us to occupy Iraq anymore, we’ll just not be able to leave.

Think again.  The Iraq War has been a sinkhole of money for our treasury, most of it borrowed from the Chinese, and it went straight to war profiteers.  There’s no reason for us to feel responsibility to the profiteers, when we don’t give a shit about the country.

Let Iraq re-nationalize its oil.  Let’s get out.  It’s less than Iraq deserves, but I don’t see us ever doing “good” there, Obama or not.

How the hell are they going to provide security for this thing? It’ll be RPG’d and mortared into the ground. There’s no walls high enough to keep those out.

Another great example of the Bushies paying money for things instead of helping people. For that much money, they could dish out a year’s wages to every Iraqi family and effectively dampen the insurgency a huge amount.

You’re lookign at this all wrong. They built this replica of Vatican City as a retirement home for George and Dick and the gang. Someplace safe and friendly where they can hide form all the war crimes tribunals.

But yeah. It’s kinda sick.

Dear Leader took whatever sense of proportionality he had and throttled it in a cold dark alley.  Hubris?  Naw, not us.

Thank you for the hat tip, Amanda! That was very kind.

I’m guessing this embassy will soon become known as George W. Bush Square, just as Richard Perle always promised us ...

I’ll tell you one thing: They should get their money back from whoever did their pre-viz work. I could do better than that in Google Sketchup.

This is an example of Ceauşima, albiet on a smaller scale:

Since Ceauşescu succeeded in quelling disagreement and opposition expressed by authoritative architects, art historians and intellectuals, a coherent reshaping project never came to light. Instead, through what was largely a step-by-step approach, the implementation of Casa Poporului ("House of the People”, now Palatul Parlamentului, “Palace of the Parliament") could be imposed. The subsequent opening of the oversized Boulevard of the Victory of Socialism was but the consequence of architectural requirements aiming at creating a congruent perspective to the colossal House of the People.[6] The final result was compared to both the Pyongyang of Kim Il Sung[7] and Adolf Hitler’s Germania.[8]

Can’t they just call it the Viceroy’s Residence? And why did they bother to build a new palace when Saddam had so many of them all over the place? Surely KBR or whoever could overbill on the rehab work just as well.

Maybe this will also house the new Disneyland-Baghdad? 

I love the picture of the single Marine guard at the entrance gate - ha, this place will be guarded with tanks and landmines.

Thriller writer Tom Clancy got it architecturally correct.  In Clear and Present Danger he describes modern American embassies as looking like a cross between a lowrise apartment building and the Siegfried Line.

Hopefully they have plenty of helicopter landing pads, ‘cause they’re gonna need ‘em when Baghdad goes Saigon on us…

“This building is not only a compound for the embassy but a symbol of the deep friendship between the two peoples of Iraq and America.”

Well, he’s half right.  It certainly is a symbol, no doubt about it.  What it’s actually a symbol of is a lot less clear…

If this wasn’t the Iraq Embassy and was somewhere else, say, Australia, this would be THE assignment for government workers. Even if it is as nice as they say it is, no one is going to want to work there.

You’re insane.Polly is about a parrot,you nut bar.

Is there a spa on the rooftop for when embassy employees have to flee there and wait for a helicopter to fly them to safety? ‘Cause that would be freakin’ sweeeeet.

Sniffle, that’s some grade A parody trolling.

A great many of our foreign embassies are OTT, with pools and bowling alleys and whatnot.

Some have lawns the size of football fields COUGH-US AMBASSADOR’S RESIDENCE THAILAND-COUGH.

“This building is not only a compound for the embassy but a symbol of the deep friendship between the two peoples of Iraq and America.”

Quite right.  It’s an erection inserted into the Iraqi body politic regardless of whether it asked for it or not.

Obviously this place is meant to be a city within a city, so that it’s employees don’t ever have to leave and venture into the country that “loves” us so darn much.

“Why do we need such protection from suicide bombs if the Iraqis love us so for “liberating” them? “

Because Iraq is a hotbed for al-Qaeda who hates us for our freedom, but we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here.  Did I leave anything out?

“Because Iraq is a hotbed for al-Qaeda who hates us for our freedom, but we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here.  Did I leave anything out?”

...yes, We’re Winning!!!11!1!!

I think they found the WMD right next to Obama’s secret Kenyan birth certificate, Nixon’s secret plan for ending the Vietnam War, and William F. Buckley’s signed confession that he shot JFK…

This is nothing new. American embassies all over the world are fortresses meant to withstand hostile environments.

When the president of Iran visits Baghdad, he announces his visit weeks in advance and rides in an open car through streets lined with cheering crowds. When Bush visits, he has to sneak into the country in the dead of night, his visit is a state secret, and no “unapproved” Iraqi is allowed within 500 yards of him.

Things are just going swell for us over there, aren’t they?

For all of the trillions already thrown into this clusterfuck, would it really have broken the bank to hire Iraqi workers at decent wages, along with free milk and cookies in the afternoons? Yet another opportunity for goodwill squandered.

A Saddam-style megafortress in Baghdad may be an apt enough symbol of our attitude towards the Iraqis, but it will not make us popular. A smart strategy would have been a subtle embassy with high, but not necessarily visible and ostentatious, security, so as not to expose Bush and Cheney’s War as the crock that it is. A locked down fortress exposes all of Bush’s lies on Iraq - that it is safer, that we are welcome there, that we approach the Iraqis as equals in a project for freedom and democracy - as just what they are: lies.

From the CorpWatch story:

he was asked by First Kuwaiti managers to escort 51 Filipinos through the Kuwait airport and onto a flight to Baghdad. However, “all of our tickets said we were going to Dubai,” he said, adding that a First Kuwaiti manager instructed him not to tell any of the Filipinos that they were going to Baghdad.

He said the men were basically “kidnapped by First Kuwaiti to work on the U.S. Embassy.” Their passports had been confiscated, and they were driven away on buses after landing in Baghdad, then were “smuggled into the Green Zone,” he said.

“You know, Joe, you and I have only been neighbors for a few short months, but ever since I ran over your dog and made a pass at your daughter, I feel like we’ve become pretty good friends. As a gesture of how much I appreciate our friendship, I’d like to park my van in your front yard.”

Some interesting trivia: Once upon a time, the largest U.S. embassy in the world was in ... Iran. After the, uh, incident, the second-largest U.S. embassy in the world was elevated to first place. That embassy is located in Paraguay (largest being size of the complex, not size of the diplomatic mission). I wouldn’t be that surprised if in a few years Paraguay regains its No. 1 standing.

Oh, how fucking awful is this whole thing?

Can Obama donate this to the Iraqis to be turned into a school or something?

This is so evil, and if *any* attacks are made on it, it’s an act of war and I expect sooner or later we’d be dropping bombs on Baghdad again.

@HP - and sell crack in your driveway while hijacking your cable hookup.

What are neighbors for?

“What it’s actually a symbol of is a lot less clear… “

MikeEss, I should think the symbolism is obvious:

The immense grounds and lavish features say, “This is our country, you wogs just live in it”.

The high walls and elaborate defenses say, “But we know you hate us and want us gone.”

Isn’t this the one where they weren’t sure whether a bunch of the buildings would even be habitable because the construction was so shoddy?

I also wonder whether the bit about kidnapping workers from some distant country to work on it is the modern-day equivalent to the ancient kings who just had all the masons and architects executed when the thing was done. Great security, unless, say, those guys were from the part of the philippines where there’s a longstanding civil war going on…

“The immense grounds and lavish features say, “This is our country, you wogs just live in it”.
The high walls and elaborate defenses say, “But we know you hate us and want us gone.””

Sure, but I was thinking of hubris, and arrogant ignorance of other people and their cultures, and cancerous and anxious masculinity issues (I don’t know how else to put it — Bush is a walking definition of masculinity issues)…

...I’m waiting for the next shoe to drop, something along the lines of this…

For the annual operating budget of this one embassy, we can solve the crisis in our education system. Or at least get the Pentagon’s accounting computers to “talk to each other” so we can account for the trillions missing.

Wow, the end clip of the article is hilarious:

Worst of all, there’s no provision for rooms for congressional delegations or other distinguished guests coming to shop in the famed markets. There aren’t any safe hotels in Baghdad, much less a decent B&B;.

Well, it wasn’t exactly intended as parady, but i guess you like everyone else are entitled to your interpretations.