Castles in the Sand

One of the arguments to the removal of Saddam Hussien by the pro-war crowd -- after the WMD theories were proved false -- was that he lived a very lavish livestyle while the Iraqi citizenry suffered. While that was indeed true, they might want to indulge in some rethinking -- an impossible feat though for people who support colonialism and have an affinity for the idea of a master race. We were informed in a report by Liz Sly yesterday that the United States plans to build a giant embassy in Iraq:

This is to be the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and it will be the biggest embassy in the world. It also is the biggest construction project under way in battered Baghdad, where the only other cranes rising from the skyline belong to Saddam Hussein's abandoned project to build the world's biggest mosque.

The architecture and facilities are virtually a type of revilement to a nation of death, starvation and despair, and to people like you and me they're a statement that a superpower can have the impunity to trample all over our heritage and honour. What's more, the US Senate has "marvelled" at this preposterous idea:

Scheduled for completion in June 2007, the 104-acre embassy compound, roughly the size of the Vatican, will resemble a mini-state, entirely independent from the outside world. It will generate its own power, pump its own sewage and draw its own water.

Within the compound there will be six buildings containing 619 apartments for diplomats, a barrack for Marine guards, separate residences for the ambassador and his deputy, a gym, a swimming pool, a club, a food court, a beauty salon, a vehicle workshop and a warehouse. There is also, the report noted, an emergency exit.

Hmmm...and what do the Iraqis -- you know, the insignificant people whose country has been invaded, bombed, pillaged and occupied -- think of all this?

The irony is not lost on Mohammed Jasim, 48, a truck driver who was forced out of his home last month by sectarian violence and now is squatting in an abandoned building just across the river from the $592 million embassy project.

"They could build houses, or they could bring security to Baghdad," Jasim complained as he sat in the shade of a big tree on the riverbank. "But it's clear they only came here for their own benefit because you can see how much money they are spending across the river."

And the money for this sort of corporate project, just like the oil, is undoubtedly being drained from the pallid arteries of Mesopotamia. Iraqis even have trouble getting oil these days.