Is the mega fortress US embassy in Iraq justified?

No

10 of 20

by Fred Tolleson

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Why are we building this vast complex of buildings and facilities in a country that we will soon be evacuating? There are some answers, and none of them appear to be based on any form of sanity or logical thinking.
First of all, the armed forces of the coalition will soon begin to leak out of Iraq as the various countries tire of this never win war. It looks like the change in government in Great Britain will allow that country to modify its stance and move its troops from Iraq to neighboring Afghanistan!
When the Republicans lose the Presidential election and the Democrats sweep into office, the troops will come home in large numbers and our allies will be out of there along with us. If Bush's popularity falls another few points he will be forced to take some sort of action, with or without the recommendation of Gen. David Petraeus in September. Most expect that action to be the beginning of evacuation of our troops, no matter what it is labeled.
This vast complex of buildings cannot be labeled support for our petroleum security. Or securing our piece of the oil production from Iraq's vast reserves. We are the worlds largest customer for petroleum products of all kinds. No Iraq leader is going to imperil the multi-billion dollar account labeled: USA!
It cannot be labeled support for the new government we founded in Baghdad. That government hates us and our troops and interfering ways more and more each day we are there. What the Iraqis want to do is very simple:
1. Take control of the country by getting the USA out of their internal politics.
2. Split up the money among the tribes, as it was before we got there. None of the money goes to the commoners - it goes to the Generals and tribal leaders, as it has for many years.
3. Kick us and our allies out of their country so that life settle down to a more routine existence. We are the billboard for jihadist's and extremists of all stripes throughout the region and they are streaming into Iraq in ever increasing numbers to be a part of the defeat of the USA and help with items #1 & 2.
Just the other day Secretary of State Rice entered a request for supplemental funds so that the project could be expanded. We are $592,000,000 in now and her request will drive the total over $600,000,000!
For what we are going to be able to accomplish in this country after about 6 months of evacuation, you could rent one of those mud store front buildings (we see them in the videos of the war) put some Orange crate furniture in there and send a camel a day in there loaded with cash. (A camel could probably carry a million or so in greenbacks) Have someone there to hand out the money and pay the camel contractor and we would have about 2 years of peace. That would be a lot cheaper than what we are currently doing with this embassy complex.

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