Buried by the "breaking news" that the Obama children are going to school today is a little-noticed tidbit about the dedication of the largest, most expensive U.S. Embassy ever built. The 104-acre compound (more than 10 times the size of most embassies) sits along the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq. Cost to American taxpayers for this fortified monument to America's invasion of a sovereign nation? A mere $740 million.
Construction of the embassy used to be a hot topic even among the American dyslexic press. Reports of cost overuns that burgeoned monthly, countless delays, and criminally-negligent workmanship were commonplace since building began in 2005. The contract award went to a Kuwaiti firm that was accused (apparently quite justifiably) of using slave labor to build the Embassy.
The Embassy will accommodate 1,000 U.S. employees. Do we need that many diplomats for a country the size of two Idahos? Oh yeah, we probably have to oversee a bunch more of those contracts that were abandoned, costing the U.S. another $600 million. (The Pentagon spent that amount on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators said in a report released in November. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that 42% of canceled contracts were terminated because the contractor either failed to deliver or performed poorly).
The current U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker as well as the first one after the war started, John Negroponte attended today's ceremony. In his remarks, Mr. Crocker said that, of the 120 years since the United States first established a diplomatic presence in Baghdad, "no period has been more intense, more challenging or more promising than that since April 2003." I'll go along with the "intense" and "challenging" descriptions, but to call the period since the date of the invasion as "promising" is beyond absurd. It appears, however, that the opening of the Embassy is a part of the Bush Legacy Project, the latest in the administration's propaganda campaigns to make George W. Bush look like less of an abject failure.
Indeed, at the dedication ceremony, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani offered strong praise for President Bush and the United States. "Allow me to express our firm belief that America’s history will have a most favorable view of the liberation of Iraq," Mr. Talabani said, "and the creation of a democratic, federal and independent Iraq which will serve as a model to be emulated by other peoples of the eastern world."
Good luck with that prediction, Mr. Talabani. And it's too bad the U.S. press corps (or as I like to call them, "the sheep") is far too busy with the tragic death of one movie star's one son to pay attention to news that affects millions. (Yes, the passing of Jett Travolta is sad, but is it any sadder than the carnage and death and financial debacle that has been our adventure in Iraq?)
Cross-posted at The Progressive Puppy
The Progressive Puppy