According to The New York Times, our biggest success so far in Iraq is the construction of a giant U.S. Embassy … looming over the [Baghdad] skyline, with the distinction of being the only big U.S. building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget … for a cost of $600 million to $1 billion. Whose money, and whose land? The heavily guarded, 104-acre site—[with] 15-foot-thick perimeter walls—has hundreds of workers swarming on scaffolding. Local [Iraqi] residents are bitter that the Kuwaiti contractor has employed only foreign staff, busing them in from a temporary camp nearby.
There will be impressive residences for the ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff, a swimming pool rumored to be the biggest in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favorite U.S. food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions. And of course, their own power grid and water supply. Security measures being installed are described as extraordinary. …
As oil services and oil companies, construction contractors and financial institutions move their corporate offices and/or headquarters to Dubai, one may conclude that the United States has no plans to leave Iraq. The control and occupation of Iraq is the plan. And oil is the prize.
The Democrats have no plans for leading this country out of Iraq with an exit strategy. They quack like Aflac ducks, then scurry to their cubicles. Protect the oil, get control.
We are being sold down the river, and [unless] people wake up and leave the Democratic Party to form a progressive coalition party that truly represents the majority of us, we are finished. We—not Bush—are looking like the lame ducks.
I think we are getting the picture. If not, see ya on the other side.
— Ed Krasner
Swannanoa
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