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| Yes | 41% | 126 votes | Total: 310 votes | |
| No | 59% | 184 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesI have spent 15 months in Iraq on deployment and I have seen the devastation that happens on a day to day basis. It is a complex situation where there are hardly any black and white answers. Just like there is no easy answer for the withdrawal of troops, there is no easy answer, and especially not a yes or a no, for spending an enormous amount of money on a piece of sovereign American soil in Iraq.
Right now is not the time to build "Fortress America" in Iraq. It just wouldn't serve much of a purpose. The decision makers living in Iraq are living in the heart of Baghdad called the "Green Zone," where the current embassy is located. For the time being, the close to 1000 employees, are working from the Republican Palace in the Green Zone. For the time being, they are doing their job in relative comfort compared to other government employees in the region.
Of course it is necessary to have an embassy in Iraq, this is one of the first steps that a burgeoning country takes to create alliances with other countries.
In order for Iraq to be a self sufficient country, many developments have to be made. One of the steps that needs to be taken is a U.S. embassy, but there are other steps that need to be taken first and it doesn't seem fit to spend such an insane amount of money on an embassy when it can be done for a lot less capital in the future.
Security in Iraq is obviously not up to the standards of other countries where permanent U.S. embassies are located. It just seems fit that security would be the number one priority before other huge projects are started. You wouldn't start writing a term paper if somebody was punching you in the face. Of course other things need to be accomplished while the country is being secured, such as rebuilding the Iraqi stock market and getting the ministries up and running. Mortars go off everyday inside the Green zone and building a 600 million dollar embassy just doesn't seem to very rational at this point in time. It definitely should not be at the top of the list of priorities.
Years down the road after major operations are finished in the country there will be a huge U.S. embassy in Baghdad that will not be serving a purpose for such a large and expensive building. While reading about this embassy being the largest and most expensive in the world, I couldn't help but to be reminded of the Russian embassy in Berlin. The embassy there is massive and serves to remind the German people that at one time they were under the choke of the Iron Curtain. Is that what we are mimicking?
Learn more about this author, Steven Groetken.
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No
The only way that parking the world's largest US embassy in downtown Baghdad can be justified is by condoning the invasion and current occupation of Iraq. As if two negatives make a right, the first sin justifies the second.
On the other hand, if you believe that in the name of every US citizen, G.W. Bush and company started a war that did not have to happen and has, so far, spent the lives of nearly 50,000 troops dead or not nearly as alive as they were, then everything after that first immoral act is stained and must be abandoned regardless of the costs. The original sin contaminates everything done after and the embassy becomes the proverbial house built on sand.
If you believe that the real rationale for attacking Iraq was to protect America, rather than to feed the military industrial complex and the Republican campaign machine, rather than to fill the pockets of US oil magnates, and/or rather than provide a staging area to invade Iran, then Baghdad Central and the 14 permanent bases under construction around Iraq, must justify themselves.
"The war is a good idea because we are fighting it and the embassy is a good idea because we are building it."
From the moral high ground, there is no way to justify the US presence in Iraq let alone the military and political monuments that symbolize its arrogance. The embassy is a beacon to all that America values money and power over life, and that it will do anything, ANYTHING, to have more. The negative symbolism will trump any and all efforts of diplomacy because they will not be believable.
Learn more about this author, Michael Burgwin.
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