http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080705/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestus_080705140847

I am torn between whether we have done a good thing or not. So many have died. I hope this is a sign of good.

I think it’s all mostly a function of priorities and public relations.  To wit:

================================================

BAGHDAD, Iraq _ It’s spring in Iraq, and Baghdadis once again have a place to picnic.

Zawra Park, the city’s original “green zone,” was a popular place for family outings and disco dance parties.

But the 80-acre downtown expanse adjoining the military parade grounds was neglected under Saddam Hussein. After a stint as a battle-scarred base for Iraqi troops during the U.S. invasion, it became a looted and shuttered memory of calmer days.

Now, the park is slowly coming back to life.

(April, 2005)

================================================

The former KBR administrator, who spent 11 months in Iraq until April, says she was responsible for processing time sheets for 665 TCNs employed by PPI at Camp Victory near Baghdad. The 14,000 troops and the US contractors based at this former palace for Saddam Hussein have use of an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a manmade lake preserved for special events and fishing.
(October, 2005)

================================================

The 1,000 or more U.S. government officials calling the new compound home will have access to a gym, swimming pool, barber and beauty shops, a food court and a commissary. In addition to the main embassy buildings, there will be a large-scale Maine barracks, a school, locker rooms, a warehouse, a vehicle maintenance garage, and six apartment buildings with a total of 619 one-bedroom units. Water, electricity and sewage treatment plants will all be independent from Baghdad’s city utilities. The total site will be two-thirds the area of the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Unlike most of Iraq’s reconstruction, the embassy is “on time and on budget,” according to a December report to U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee which calls the progress an “impressive” feat given that construction is taking place in a country besieged by war.

(February, 2006)

=================================================

Construction of the U.S. embassy in Iraq, set to open in September, is projected to cost $592 million, with a staff of 1,000 people and operating costs totaling $1.2 billion a year. It will be a 104-acre complex, which is the size of approximately 80 football fields. On May 10, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticized the ballooning size and cost of the embassy in a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Now, having said over and over again that we don’t want to be seen as an occupying force in Iraq, we’re building the largest embassy that we have — probably the largest in the world — in Baghdad. And it just seems to grow and grow and grow. … We agree that we should focus our aid locally not in Baghdad, but we have 1,000 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad. You add the contractors and the local staff it comes to 4,000.

The architectural firm designing the embassy, Berger Define Yaeger, has posted the designs for the colossus on its website. Some previews of the compound’s planned swimming pool and tennis courts:

(May 2007)

==================================================

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Since the relationship between Zawra Park officials and 15th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers began earlier this year, the Baghdad Zoo and park have started reopening more and more exhibits to the public.

Park officials and 15th BSB Soldiers were on hand to reopen the latest projects, an indoor horse stable and a children’s swimming pool at the park in central Baghdad, Dec. 1.

(December, 2007)

==================================================

Most of the children at the pool, like al-Tammimi, were sons or daughters of local officials who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the pools’ opening.

But officials say the pools are open to the general public.

(July 5, 2008)

It all sounds pretty negative. Bobby, are you for us or against us?

As early as 2005 the US was taking credit for reopening the park, really doing not much of anything, and putting priorities elsewhere.  I am for us having the military run by smarter elected civilians at the very top.  The current group are backstabbing, secret-leaking liars for whom self-preservation is the primary instinct.  I am for replacing them asap, for the good of our country.

for many people, getting rid of saddam was a great thing.  he was a terrible p.o.s.  but the bush administration gravely (and in my opinion, negligently) miscalculated nearly everything from the getgo.  saddam was controlled since 1991.  one of the few reasons we didn’t take him out then was the fear that this would empower iran.  without saddam holding a very fractured ethnic (some would say artificial) country together, iran would only gain due to the overwhelming shia majority in iraq.  all of this was known in 2003 when the strategic decision was made by george bush and his cabinet to focus attention on iraq and saddam before we finished our job of nation building in afghanistan and taking out al quaeda and binladen.  we had no plan after the war was won in little over a month.  we had inadequate troop numbers to provide adequate security because we were mislead by ahmad chalabi and other nefarious charlatans to believe that we would be welcomed as liberators and everybody would fall in line, despite the intense ethnic and religious hatred underlying relations in iraq.  our intelligence agencies knew this, the state department knew this, but because our leadership wanted to go to war with as little domestic pain as possible, the generals and admirals and civilians who pushed for more troops for this precise reason were either forced into retirement or fired.  to make matters worse, the hyper-political nature of the bush whitehouse ensured that no mistakes were ever admitted, which ensured that anybody urging more troop deployments in 2004 (an election year) or 2005 to address the worsening security situation were either silenced or reassigned.  five years later, the security situation in iraq is wholly dependent on the presence of our forces and the central government is weak, fragmented, and controlled by shia politicians more interested (some would say rightfully so) in keeping the suni down in order to ensure they are never treated like saddam treated them.  iran test firing missiles and enriching uranium, while at the same time funding shia militias to bleed our forces and the authority of the iraqi central government little by little.  everytime i read about a school that goes up or a post office that is built with my taxpayer dollars, i am encouraged for a moment, but then i focus again on the big picture.  was the iraq invasion worth it?  i would say that even though a tyrant like saddam hussein was booted from power, given everything else, it was not worth it, no matter how much “good” we do from this day forward.