Tag: Green Zone

This is how the Pentagon envisions the Green Zone of Baghdad after a $5 billion tourist and development scheme.

A plan by US military planners for the “Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club” in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Picture: U.S. Army/AP

There’s nothing like playing a relaxing 18 holes of golf for U.S. generals and big oil executives after a tough day in oil-rich, occupied Iraq. Or as The Guardian describes it in Luxury hotels and golf: welcome to the Green Zone:

Picture… a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad’s International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the club house and a soothing massage in a luxury hotel… Then, as twilight falls, a pre-prandial stroll, perhaps, amid the cool of the Tigris Riverfront Park, where the peace is broken only by the soulful cries of egrets fishing.

Unbelievable.

A rain of mortars and artillery rockets has commenced on the Green Zone, the headquarters of the US occupation authorities in Iraq. Rumors have circulated that US embassy personnel have withdrawn from the Green Zone to undisclosed locations. What is now in question is the fate of the colossal, newly-constructed US embassy compound. The half-billion-dollar complex of massive buildings has never been fully occupied, because of numerous construction flaws, but there is now a larger issue.

How well does a complex of office buildings hold up under daily mortar and rocket fire? Although the buildings are heavily reinforced, all structures have weak points. The air conditioning, water, and electrical systems are all potentially vulnerable to damage or disruption through incoming rocket fire. The insurgent rockets are inaccurate, but the embassy complex is a huge target. Day by day, it is likely that serious damage is being done. Unless the rockets are stopped, the embassy is doomed. Even if it is not physically destroyed, if the grounds of the embassy become so dangerous that vehicles and helicopters cannot safely approach it, the embassy becomes useless, and is functionally nullified.

America made a huge error is constructing this enormous symbol of occupation power in the heart of Baghdad. It was like putting up a huge “come and get us” sign to the insurgents. Now Al Sadr’s insurgents are pounding away, and the dearth of news coverage of damage in the Green Zone suggests that things are not going well there.  

Series of rockets fired on Baghdad’s Green zone

Attacks come a day after al-Sadr orders extension of cease-fire

BAGHDAD – A series of rockets or mortars were fired toward the U.S.-protected Green Zone early Saturday, a day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia fighters to cease attacks for another six months.

Anybody want to guess who will be blamed for these?