Mike Booth: The Gringo Chronicles

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Pentagon Plan Re-Defines Surrealism
According to an article in this morning’s Guardian, the Pentagon has plans to emulate Samuel Taylor Coleridge and convert the Baghdad Green Zone into a stately pleasure dome with the new billion-dollar American Embassy surrounded by “fashion boutiques, swanky cafés, and shiny glass office towers.” There are even luxury hotels and a golf course in their plans.

Michael Howard, author of the article states:

A $5bn (£2.5bn) tourism and development scheme for the Green Zone being hatched by the Pentagon and an international investment consortium would give the heavily fortified area on the banks of the Tigris a “dream” makeover that will become a magnet for Iraqis, tourists, business people and investors. About half of the area is now occupied by coalition forces, the US state department or private foreign companies.

According to the article, Marriott International has already signed a deal to build a hotel in the Green Zone. I wonder what they’ll call it. The Marriott Shock and Awe? The Hearts and Minds Marriott? The mind boggles.

Howard’s report adds:

One Los Angeles-based firm, C3, has said it wants to build an amusement park on the Green Zone’s outskirts. As part of the first phase, a skateboard park is due to open this summer.

One wonders if the Green Zone Skateboard Park will

be open to all the legless Iraqi boys and girls.

Cynical Me

I’m probably cynical but, faced with all these international investors rushing to buy this little corner of Hell which the Americans have created in Iraq, I suspect that this fascinating piece of news has very litle to do with luxury hotels or golf courses. Or with skateboard parks, for that matter. Though its messages are subliminal, lurking just underneath the turf on the 18th green, they are quite clear:

1. It’s “business as usual” in Iraq.
2. The United States intends their presence in Iraq to be permanent.

The first message is a lie. The second one is true, though from intention to reality is a long leap.

Howard ends his article on a mercifully more realistic note:

For many Baghdad residents, the Green Zone has been a no-go area for years, first under Saddam and now under the occupation. “What do I care?” shrugged one, Ahmed Hussein. “I don’t have electricity, I don’t have fresh water and I don’t have a job.”

Out of the Box

My wife says, “They’re all dribbling from the mouth,” and suggests that, while the geniuses at the Department of Defense are thinking “out of the box” they should consider putting padlocks on all the exits from the Pentagon, thereby converting its inhabitants into residents of a giant five-sided facility for the criminally insane.