by Ravi Nayar

Created on: April 19, 2008

In present day Iraq, to paraphrase that rather sexist aphorism, "Cherchez la femme" in solving any crime of passion, we have to search for the hand of the clique of war profiteers sitting in Washington when in comes to any grandiose projects there. It has already been proven that the Americans have become nothing but glorified prisoners in the gilded cage that is called the green zone of Baghdad, cowering inside it and manufacturing fantasies of success for congressional hearings. One gets an almost sense of dj-vu remembering similar stories emanating from the former embassy in Saigon till it all came crashing down with the pictures of the embassy personnel escaping by helicopter from the approaching Viet Cong & the North Vietnamese Army splashed across the world. Built on a sand of distortion and outright lies these so called fortresses will only crumble, sooner than later. And building fortresses, especially in a region where USA is perceived as the enemy, will only serve to act as a focus for every anti-American rabble rouser.

Embassies are meant to foster friendly relations between nations. Unfortunately in the Middle East, American Embassies are perceived as nothing more than supporters of corrupt and tyrannical regimes. And this is exacerbated by USA's unquestioning support of Israeli policies. Building fortress-like embassies instead of trying to build bridges of understanding and friendship will only harden the anger and hatred of the Iraqis towards USA in the coming years. They will see it as a command and control center for propping up an unpopular, corrupt regime. Unfortunately USA does not seem to understand that any Arab regime which is friendly with it will be eyed with suspicion by the populace.

It surprises me that America, with all the knowledge it can count on and use from the intellectuals staffing its universities, think tanks etc, now solely has to depend on a coterie of so called neo-cons with their almost fascist view of world domination. And this being the fact, history will repeat itself. And we should remain glued to the TV sets for CNN's breathless account of the final departure of the Americans from their fortress like embassy in Baghdad. Hope they have made a helicopter pad on top of that fortress.It will happen sooner than later.

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