America Is Very Heavy
On Bombing Iran and Other Fantasies of American Power
"This Is Our Destiny"
By Tom Engelhardt
"Consider the embassy we're building inside Baghdad's Green Zone. It's the size of Vatican city, will have its own apartment buildings (six of them) for its staff of perhaps 5,500 (all that diplomatic heavy-lifting), its own electricity, well-water, and waste-treatment facilities to guarantee '100 percent independence from city utilities,' not to speak of the 'swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation building.' And unlike just about every other reconstruction project in the country, it's going up efficiently and on schedule.
In fact, reports the London Times' Daniel McGrory, it drives Baghdad residents wild to watch what they call, in mock-honor of Saddam Hussein's famously self-glorifying building projects, 'George W's palace,' as it rises on the banks of the Tigris River, while their lives crumble around them. It will be bermed, 'hardened,' and have its own defense force (just like the Vatican!). A citadel inside a citadel, this one is clearly meant for the ages. Talk about preponderant! Talk about signaling who we think is in command in Iraq! How sensible to establish our diplomatic position in relation to our Iraqi 'partner' by erecting the ziggurat of ziggurats. Imagine, as Iraq disintegrates, our soldiers (and their attendant KBR workers) living in blissful, Pizza-Hut isolation on our little, well-fortified American islands. Do you really think that's likely to last long?"
"This Is Our Destiny"
By Tom Engelhardt
"Consider the embassy we're building inside Baghdad's Green Zone. It's the size of Vatican city, will have its own apartment buildings (six of them) for its staff of perhaps 5,500 (all that diplomatic heavy-lifting), its own electricity, well-water, and waste-treatment facilities to guarantee '100 percent independence from city utilities,' not to speak of the 'swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation building.' And unlike just about every other reconstruction project in the country, it's going up efficiently and on schedule.
In fact, reports the London Times' Daniel McGrory, it drives Baghdad residents wild to watch what they call, in mock-honor of Saddam Hussein's famously self-glorifying building projects, 'George W's palace,' as it rises on the banks of the Tigris River, while their lives crumble around them. It will be bermed, 'hardened,' and have its own defense force (just like the Vatican!). A citadel inside a citadel, this one is clearly meant for the ages. Talk about preponderant! Talk about signaling who we think is in command in Iraq! How sensible to establish our diplomatic position in relation to our Iraqi 'partner' by erecting the ziggurat of ziggurats. Imagine, as Iraq disintegrates, our soldiers (and their attendant KBR workers) living in blissful, Pizza-Hut isolation on our little, well-fortified American islands. Do you really think that's likely to last long?"
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