Attackerman - Commentary of Spencer Ackerman » And Then You Wonder Why They Burn Your Buildings Down

And Then You Wonder Why They Burn Your Buildings Down

By Spencer on May 5th, 2008 at 8:12 am

And Then You Wonder Why They Burn Your Buildings Down»

In a city consumed by chaos, war, occupation, corruption, intermittent and unreliable electricity, sewage overflows that you sometimes have to wade through, food shortages, public-health crises, you know what you shouldn’t build?

…luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.

That’s all part of a five-year development “dream list” — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad’s future.

But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told the Associated Press.

That sort of indifference to the suffering of Iraq is provocative. If I was Moqtada Sadr, I would use it as a rallying cry. Consider:

“When you have $1 billion hanging out there and 1,000 employees lying around, you kind of want to know who your neighbors are. You want to influence what happens in your neighborhood over time,” said Navy Capt. Thomas Karnowski, who led the team that created the development plan.

Your neighbors! Your actual neighbors, the ones whose country it is, experience shortages of water, electricity, fuel, cooking oil, medical care, security and more. The rise of this hotel compound will drain resources away from a desperate population, much like how the desire for ice cream on U.S. troop bases in Saigon led indirectly to all manner of health and social crises in the city during the late 60s. Now that the Bush administration has taken over Saddam Hussein’s old compounds, its officials have begun to ape the habits of the old regime.

Some Iraqi leaders even have drawn parallels to the U.S.-backed development plan and what Saddam Hussein did in the area — known by its Iraqi name of Tashri during his regime.

Saddam stocked the neighborhood with family and tribal allies, political loyalists and members of his elite Republican Guard. Karnowski called the accusation “partially true.”

“Why do people build fences around their house? The intent is until such time as it’s much safer around here, you want to be able to influence what goes on,” he said.

Never, ever, let another warmonger get away with telling you that you want to end the war because you don’t care about the Iraqi people’s fate. He probably has his luxury suite already booked in the forthcoming International Zone Hilton.

Comments

One Response to “And Then You Wonder Why They Burn Your Buildings Down”

JimPortlandOR Says:
May 5th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
This ‘green zone’ thingy has been bouncing amoung my neurons for a few years, and your invocation of the International Zone Hilton above finally cemented the association.

Behold: The International Settlement.

In all eras, in all civilizations there have been cities that mark their time and place in history. For 100 years, Shanghai was such a city. [McCain’s 100 years of Iraq occupation?]

In the 1930s, this port on the mouth of the Yangtze River boasted some of the most lavishly appointed hotels on Earth. (The lighting fixtures at Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Hotel were all Lalique, including those in the bathrooms.) The super-exclusive Shanghai Club boasted the longest bar in the world–”the Long Bar.” As a playground of the rich and famous, Shanghai was the port of call for everybody who was anybody.
…
For over a century, from the 1840s through the 1940s, Shanghai was the place where the ideological, cultural and geopolitical struggles of the modern era played out.

In 1842, the British won the First Opium War, which erupted after Britain insisted on importing opium to southern China. By creating a nation of addicts, the crafty Brits insured themselves a market for their opium and thus the ability to redress their large trade deficit with China. [Baghdad as new outlet for Afghani/CIA heroin?]

Following its defeat, China became semi-colonial state. The Qing Dynasty ruled, but in China’s most important cities the prime real estate was parceled into areas known as “concessions” controlled by colonial powers.
…
Throughout this period, no city in China was more important than Shanghai, which by the end of the 19th century was the world’s third most important banking capital after New York and London, and, as such, the undisputed financial center of East Asia. In essence, Shanghai was two cities, one a Chinese city under the authority of the weak Chinese government, the other an international zone consisting of concessions controlled primarily by the British, Americans, French and, following the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japanese.
…
The French concession in Shanghai was a formal part of the French Empire. The Americans and British joined forces in 1854 and jointly ran a concession that became known as the Shanghai International Settlement. The Shanghailanders, as the generations of English and Americans who were born in the city referred to them selves, operated the settlement as an independent state, though one in which Chinese could live.
…
While Chinese were permitted to own land in the Settlement, they were not made to feel at home. In 1889, the Shanghai Municipal Council, the International Settlement’s governing body, issued an order allowing “respectable and decently dressed natives” to use the public parks. It then rescinded that permission when too many Chinese took to sleeping on park benches. (It is popularly believed that the gates of the parks bore signs, “Dogs and Chinese Not Admitted,” but that’s an urban myth.)

It wasn’t until 1928 that Chinese were again allowed into the Settlement’s public parks. The same year three Chinese men were invited to join the Shanghai Municipal Council, which prior to then had been composed of five Brits, two Americans and two Japanese.

Since the Shanghai thing worked so “well” in a completely foreign (and oft hostile) but weak culture, I guess we’ve decided to replicate the riverine international city on the Tigris. Big question: will the airport and green zone be ‘unified’ so that Paris Hilton can visit to gamble/gambol in Saddam’s palaces and pools? Viva Las Vegas!