US Embassy Baghdad

In My Humble Opinion
1

Mods, I debated about Great Debates, General Questions or here, please locate as appropriate.

Having served there, and been totally underawed by what we are doing in Iraq, I am somewhat amused, and still confused about the “Why?” of it all.
This link, from Foreign Pollicy Online, among many others, seems to say something: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/08/state_dept_to_baghdad_employees_stop_whining_about_the_salad_bar

In my opinion we screwed up militarily, diplomatically and perhaps morally, but now the question is what do we do with the 104 acre facility? BTW, the acreage mentioned is less than half what the State Department is trying to control and support.

2

Good god, please tell me that article was satire?

3

I found a modest amount of humor, but I think it was what the reporters felt was important to include in the story.
My point, I guess was that I arrived expecting a diplomatic mission and found an Army camp with parade ground and barracks.
Even the non military people seemed to affect a military demeanor, to include the “high and tight” or even shaved heads.

This was one of the first, along with a comlumn in the Washington Post to report on the possible drawn-down, I probably should have linked it instead of the other.:
U.S. Is Planning to Cut Its Staff at Iraq Embassy by as Much as Half - The New York Times.

Just picking up an example of shortages in the supply lines of the salad bar being depleted made it sound like that’s a major concern of the employees posted there.
It was perhaps an unwise example to use, but we can’t talk about the shortages of supplies, tools, or difficulties in connecting to classified computer networks.

Everyone in Baghdad now and when I was there last year, is a volunteer. We are paid extra, and receive some incentives that make it not so bad, but it is still like a high security low intensity prison. The amenities become more important than they might elsewhere.

4

Did you meet any Iraqis? Other than ones who were paid to be on the base?

5

If you thought embassy personnel had a military demeanor you obviously have never served. There are usually a number of former military contractors walking around though.

6

I spent 20 years in the navy, 10 years in industry, 10 years in the State Department, with a year in Baghdad. I can tell the difference. For one, we wear different security badges.:slight_smile:

7

Very few. Just to go across the street, we were in armored vehicles and in “buddy” teams.
It is obviously much harder now.

8

So you were in the Navy, not the military :wink:

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FTR during my deployment I worked at the Embassy Annex (Presidential Palace) until we turned it back over. For the rest of my deployment I was at Union III across from the NEC. Used to cross the street for Sunday chow and sometimes to go to BBQs with the Triple Canopy guys.

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Hello all.
I am a UK-based writer developing a script based around the Baghdad embassy. I wanted to know a couple of things and wondered if anyone could help in any way? My questions are:

a) Does the facility have a codename? I once read it was called ‘The Swamp’ (I guess because it’s built by the Tigris) but can’t confirm this. How do locals/contractors refer to the embassy?

b) What is the main admin building called? How are the accommodation blocks refereed to? Ditto the embassy medical facility?

c) While I understand the nature of classified intel, the defences play an integral part to the story. The embassy has a 9 foot high perimeter wall. A fit guy with a decent boost could scale that easily, therefore it must be a multi-layered type deal. So, hypothetically, if the embassy was stormed, what sort of reception could a potential attacking force expect?

Again, this information is required for the purposes of a script. A general overview is all I really need, although some specifics would greatly enhance credibility. FYI the plot takes place over the Christmas holidays and after the recently-reported planned draw down which leaves the embassy lightly populated (about 1000 personnel).

Hope someone can help.
Regards…

11

I spent about 2.5 years in Iraq from 2003 to 2006, most of it in Baghdad and all of it outside of the Green Zone where the US embassy is located. I worked for not for profits and we developed a real hatred for the Green Zone and the embassy. Our neighborhood was getting hit with IEDs and mortar attacks pretty regularly including a sniper attack on our office, but they were eating at pizza hut, walking around with their little para-military outfits and pretending they were in a war zone, it used to bug the shit out of us.

Here are some of the less than mature ways we dealt with it:

We absolutely refused to call it the International Zone, which is what they changed the name of the Green Zone to.

A lot of times people in the GZ would refer to everywhere outside of the GZ as the Red Zone (most of them had never been outside of it), when they called it the Red Zone we would always say “out there, we just call it Iraq,” in this passive aggresive tone that looking back on it was pretty lame.

When we went in to the GZ, we would say things like “God, it’s good to get out of Iraq for a while.”

We had this little support office in the GZ staffed by people who never went outside of the GZ, every once in a while, we’d go stay there for a weekend to get drunk and blow off steam. When we did, we totally took over the place like a band of barbarians. There used to be an insurgent TV channel that showed tapes of attacks on US convoys, beheadings, and pro insurgent videos. We used to put that channel on, get royally drunk and play poker all the while being total dicks to everyone who wasn’t us.

The strange thing is that when I read what I’ve written, I sound like a total douche (this is just a sampling of our behavior), but at the time it somehow made sense. Looking back at it, I realized that we were tense all the time, you woke up tense, you slept tense, you ate tense, and you were pissed off at people who weren’t. When you blew off steam it wasn’t just cracking the valve open a little bit, it was a full blown critical failure of the tank.

Don’t know what this really has to do with the OP, I just hadn’t thought about how much I hated that embassy in a long time.

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a) I haven’t been there in several years. At the time everyone called it the NEC (New Embassy Compound). Since it is no longer new and the old one is gone I doubt they still call it that.

b) No idea. The individual buildings didn’t have names when I was there.

c) You have got to be fucking kidding me right?

13

Is the working title of this script, “Die Hard 6,” by any chance?

14

It’s just a very, very big castle.

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My responses within the quote.

This is as far as I am willing to go in this forum. A PM may get more detail and perhaps some anecdotal information.:slight_smile:

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Thank you very much for your reply, and thanks to the others as well. Very informative and useful. Thanks again.

All the best,

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Just as an FYI, SDA is Staff Diplomatic Apartment.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

18

Interesting that some still call it the NEC.

19

You forgot to mention the ninjas.

20

And the laser cannon emplacements.