Page 1 of
2 Imperial opportunities for US
builders By Tom Engelhardt
I know. Times are tough. Here, in the
United States, the bottom's threatening to blow
out of the housing market. Here, construction
companies are laying off employees and builders
are wondering where their next jobs are likely to
come from. But there's still hope that can be
summed up in this bit of advice: Go East (or
West), young builder, but leave the country.
After all, elsewhere on the planet
Americans are still building up a storm. Why just
recently, a desperate State Department
requested - and received
permission - from the Iraqi government to keep a
full contingent of 2,000 non-Iraqi construction
workers (admittedly, impoverished Third Worlders,
evidently stowed away under less than lovely
conditions) in Baghdad to finish work on the
mother of all embassies. We're talking about a US
Embassy compound under construction these past
years that's meant to hold 1,000 diplomats, spies
and military types (as well as untold numbers of
private security guards, service workers, and
heaven knows who else).
It will operate in
the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone
as if it were the US's first lunar colony.
According to William Langewiesche, writing in
Vanity Fair, it will contain "its own power
generators, water wells, drinking-water treatment
plant, sewage plant, fire station, irrigation
system, Internet uplink, secure intranet,
telephone center (Virginia area code), cell-phone
network (New York area code), mail service, fuel
depot, food and supply warehouses, vehicle-repair
garage, and workshops".
As yet, the
21-building, nearly Vatican-sized "embassy"
remains unfinished and significantly behind
schedule. That's what happens, of course, when you
insist on redesigning your food court to serve not
just lunch, but three meals a day and ... oh, yes
... to be bomb-, mortar- and missile-proof at the
cost of an extra US$27.9 million. Some of the
embassy's wiring systems have already blown a
fuse; its 252 guard trailers have filled with
formaldehyde fumes, and "during a recent test of
the embassy sprinkler system, 'everything blew
up'." (A bit worrisome, should a well-aimed mortar
start a fire.)
And to add insult to
injury, the project is now $144 million over the
nearly $600 million budget Congress granted it
(and, when fully operational, is expected to cost
another $1.2 billion a year to run). A State
Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, rejecting
charges of inadequate oversight, offered the
following clarification of the embassy's present
financial situation: "It is not a cost overrun. It
is an additional contract requirement." It's true,
as well, that the construction contract was long
ago farmed out to Middle Eastern talent - First
Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting was made
prime contractor. So it's probably too late for
you ...
The sky's the limit in Iraq
But, young builder, don't despair. When it
comes to American construction projects in Iraq,
the sky's really the limit. Just recently,
National Public Radio's defense correspondent Guy
Raz spent some time at Balad Air Base about 70
kilometers north of Baghdad. As Thomas Ricks of
the Washington Post reported, in 2006, Balad is
essentially an "American small town", so big that
it has neighborhoods and bus routes - and its air
traffic rivals Chicago's O'Hare International
Airport.
According to Raz, the base now
houses 30,000 American troops as well as perhaps
another 10,000 private contractors. It has
well-fortified Pizza Hut, Burger King and Subway
fast-food outlets, two PXs that are as big as
K-Marts, and actual sidewalks (which - note, young
contractor - someone had to build). Billions of
dollars have reportedly gone into Balad, one of at
least five "mega-bases" the Bush administration
has built in that country (not counting the
embassy, which is functionally another base) -
and, Raz tells us, "billions of dollars are being
spent on upgrades".
But it's his more
general description of the base that should set
your heart pitter-pattering, young builder. After
all, if you grab just a bit of this construction
activity, you've got a gig that could extend years
into the future. Why just the other day, former
Centcom commander General John Abizaid, the man
who dubbed President George W Bush's "war on
terror" "the Long War", suggested that American
troops could well be stationed in the Middle East
half-a-century from now. ("We shouldn't assume for
even a minute that in the next 25 to 50 years the
American military might be able to come home,
relax and take it easy.") Of Balad, Raz writes:
The base is one giant construction
project, with new roads, sidewalks and
structures going up across this 16-square-mile
fortress in the center of Iraq, all with an eye
toward the next few decades ... At the base, the
sounds of construction and the hum of generators
seem to follow visitors everywhere. Seen from
the sky at night, the base resembles Las Vegas:
While the surrounding Iraqi villages get about
10 hours of electricity a day, the lights never
go out at Balad Air Base.
I don't
want you to think, though, that Balad is the only
other major work opportunity in Iraq. Consider,
for instance, al-Asad Air Base, another of the
US's billion-dollar mega-bases. This one's off in
Iraq's western desert. When the president
"visited" Iraq in early September, this was where
he landed - and a bevy of journalists hit the base
with him (a base, mind you, that is supposed to
have a 32 kilometer perimeter!) and managed to
describe next to nothing about it to the rest of
us.
Fortunately, a corporal in the US
Marine Reserves (and sometime writer for the
Weekly Standard and National Review), Matt Sanchez
has been traveling Iraq, embedded with US troops,
and recently offered a rare, vivid description.
Asad, he tells us, is known among Americans as
"Camp Cupcake" ("a military base where you can
have all the ice cream you want, swim in an
air-conditioned indoor pool, drink cafe lattes at
3am and even take yoga courses in the gym"). At
present, according to Sanchez, it holds 17,000
people ("most of whom don't even work for the
military") and evidently has its own Starbucks.
Arriving there from rougher lodgings, he found it
a disorienting experience.
With sidewalks, clean paved roads
and working street lamps (a combination not
common in Iraqi cities), there are times when I
felt I was in a small city in Arizona instead of
the Sunni Triangle. Asad is the only place I
know of in Anbar province where drivers get
speeding tickets and vehicles are towed for bad
parking.
And don't forget the
traditional "steak and lobster" Thursday meals at
the mess hall or the "Ugandans" - African private
security personnel - who generally man checkpoints
around the base. And, young builder, just take
note: Someone built all this and the building
hasn't stopped yet.
I know ...
Construction on these giant bases has largely gone
to crony corporations connected to the Bush
administration and it's undoubtedly pretty hard
for a young contractor to find a way into the Iraq
construction boom. (Iraqis, mind you, have had the
same problem!) I mean, I see your point. How does
a small construction company like yours get in on
the subcontracting ground floor in a place like
Iraq? Well, all I can say is: take heart. After
all, bases are springing up in Iraq all the time.
Consider, for instance, the delightfully
named "Combat Outpost Shocker". It's only seven
provocative kilometers from the Iranian border and
it's a nothing, really. A mere bagatelle of a
forward base, meant to block what the Bush
administration claims is a flow of deadly Iranian
weaponry. It went up almost overnight for chump
change on a $5 million contract. And it's such a
modest "camp", perfect for a novice imperial
builder to get involved with - sized for just 100
troops from the Republic of Georgia (on-loan to
the ever-shrinking Coalition of the Willing),
about 70 American soldiers, and a few US Border
Patrol agents (who, it seems, can be assigned to
any border on the planet, not just our two
official territorial demarcation lines). It's so
small it won't even have an air strip for
fixed-wing aircraft, a requisite for any larger
base.
Afghan opportunities In
late September, when news of Combat Outpost
Shocker suddenly came out in the Wall Street
Journal, it caused a tiny media ripple (though a
blink and you would have missed it). After all, it
seemed like one more in-your-face gesture at the
Iranians on the noble road to preventing "World
War III". Far more noteworthy from your point of
view, though, is something no one in the US ever
discusses: the Pentagon can evidently build bases
just about anywhere it pleases.
It seems
not to have even bothered to consult Iraqi
government officials before announcing that Combat
Outpost Shocker was well underway, or perhaps
Congress either. But that's pretty much the
latitude you get when you're the "Defense
Department" for
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
