Baghdad Green Zone Under Attack
The heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad houses the offices of high ranking American brass in Iraq as well as the Iraqi parliament building and offices of Iraqi government officials, including those of the Iraq Prime Minister.
The Green Zone is also the site of the huge new American Embassy that is expected to open this Summer. While the Green Zone has long been subjected to attacks in the past they were usually well off target and of low intensity.
American officials are now worried about the increasing frequency of the attacks along with their greater accuracy and more lethal explosive charges. Only last week four Asia construction workers were killed at a Green Zone construction site in a rocket attack.
A day after that attack Green Zone workers were ordered to stay inside in hardened areas as much as possible and to wear flak jackets and helmets when they did have to venture outdoors. “Remain within a hardened structure to the maximum extent possible and strictly avoid congregating outdoors,†the order said. Hmmmmmm, sounds like serious stuff. Welcome to the war, Green Zone citizens.
Long considered the safest place in Iraq the war has now come to the Green Zone. This has affected the mentality of the workers who up to now were able to enjoy a kind of American country club oasis in the middle of a stricken city. It has also caused American officials to start to worry about the safety of the new massive American Embassy that will cost American taxpayers over one billion dollars at completion.
Keep in mind that the increase in attacks on the Green Zone is occurring long after the start of the American troop surge in Baghdad. Even the ever optimistic and unrealistic American VP Dick Cheney, who proclaimed a couple of years ago that “the insurgency is in it’s death throes” has been forced to take a more cautionary view.
In a surprise visit to Baghdad this week Chicken Hawk Cheney, when asked about the Baghdad security situation, commented from the deep dark innermost secure recesses of the Green Zone that “I have to rely on reports, because obviously I spent the day here basically in our embassy in the Green Zone.â€
If it weren’t for the dire long term implications for America about the entire Iraq war disaster and the tragic loss of American and Iraqi lives, I would have to laugh about the way this saga is unfolding. It is like a poorly written disaster movie where you already know the ending but aren’t yet quite sure how and how many of the main characters will survive to get there.
When I read about more accurate and more deadly attacks on the Green Zone I can only think that the insurgents are only warming up for the opening of the gigantic new American Embassy. Talk about a magnet for continued attacks. The US is constructing the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad.
What an opportunity for the insurgents to show just how limited the power of the mighty US truly is in fighting an insurgency. Continued strikes against the fortress Green Zone and the soon to be completed American Embassy will come to symbolize an emboldened and strengthened insurgency.
One of the worst days of my life was in 1975 as I watched live TV coverage of the American debacle and full scale panic of the evacuation of the American Embassy in Saigon. Helicopters were taking off from the roof of the embassy with extremely frightened people hanging off the helicopter skids.
I had rotated out of Vietnam in 1968 so had a lot of time to readjust to life in the home of the big PX. I still cried like a baby watching the American saga in Vietnam come to such a sorry disgraceful end.
I fear I had best get ready for another sad chapter in the ongoing limits of American power story. When the area considered the safest in Baghdad comes under constant deadly attack even with the troop surge the future can’t be overly bright for the American presence in Iraq.
We had best keep a large fleet of well maintained helicopters near the embassy ready to go. An embassy staff of over 8,000 plus a small army to defend them is going to require a lot of air lifting capability if worst comes to worst in Iraq.
