The Club Of Ariminium (and Caesena) 2: Approach To Imperium

Iraq has always depended upon the kindness of strangers. So, as we mull over whom to run in 2008, we allow them to twist in the wind. Take solace in the realization that if there is to be retribution, perhaps we may confine it to the Grandkids!

The excellent Secretary of Defense has stated that WE shall be in Iraq for a long time. He envisions something along the lines of Korea, North and South, where we kept troops in the South for more that 50 years. Nothing surprises me from this confederacy of dunces anymore. In Korea we had the Communist countries of North Korea, China, and the USSR.
In Iraq, we defeated the Iraqi army and face disparate groups of insurgents and militias and maybe 5,000 to 10,000 Al Qai'da irregulars. So why shall we stay there forever? I suppose that was the plan all along. The new US embassy built within the green zone is enormous. There were pictures on the Internet until they were removed. The security people thought that digital pictures of the swimming pools and tennis courts might be a security risk. You may read about it at TomDispatch http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=199798 The Mother Ship Lands in Iraq The Colossus of Baghdad 

The enormous embassy is the newest Icon of the Imperial USA. It sheer bulk brings to mind Albert Speer and Arno Brecker.

I got a bird's eye view before the pix were removed from the architect's site:

From memory, I think ot covers 14 acres and will cost $ 1.2 billion to staff and run. There is something famously Domus Aurea of Nero about it all. Perhaps our descendants will creep about in its subterranean grottoes, too, and picnic amid the glories of the departed imperial race.

Now, let us recall Albert Speer:

Grosse Halle

who was to build the new Berlin, and Arno Brecker whose sculptures would adorn the 1,000 year buidlings:

Kammeradschaft

In all fairness, we should only ask the President and Vice President how long, in their estimation, the hegemony of the United States of America will last? Would it be unpatriotic to suggest it would not be 1,000 years?

Or would the mere asking of that question cause an explosion of the entire charade. The smiling masks would drop, there would be frowns, and good men scurry about looking for hemlock.