"The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country," says a European-based research group.
State Department spokesman Justin Higgins confirmed that “large numbers of non-diplomats work at the mission” — hundreds of military personnel and dozens of FBI agents, for example.
Security, overseen by U.S. Marines, will be extraordinary: structures reinforced to 2.5-times the standard, and five high-security entrances, plus an emergency entrance-exit, a Senate report says. It will have its own water wells, electricity plant and waste-water-treatment facility, "systems to allow 100 percent independence from city utilities," says the Senate report.
Factor into the equation that US engineers have been constructing 14 "enduring bases" in Iraq. This Pentagon-speak terminology, "enduring" bases, translates as something a little more enduring than a tent on a wooden platform. At least $4.5 billion has gone to construction and maintenance of U.S. bases.
Together, a one billion dollar “embassy” and 14 “enduring bases” suggest an indefinite stay on Iraqi soil that will cost US taxpayers for years to come. --Not to say that hopes that the troops might be out by 2008 is wildly optimistic.
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