"US to drastically scale back expansive embassy in Iraq" February 08, 2012|By Tim Arango
BAGHDAD - Less than two months after US troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining US influence in the country.
Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and other senior State Department officials are reconsidering the size and scope of the embassy, where the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors.
The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.
How much health care would that buy?
The swift realization among some top officials that the diplomatic buildup may have been ill-advised represents a remarkable pivot for the State Department, in that officials spent more than a year planning the expansion and that many of the thousands of additional personnel have only recently arrived....
After the US troops departed in December, life became more difficult for the thousands of diplomats and contractors left behind. Convoys of food that were previously escorted by the US military from Kuwait were delayed at border crossings as Iraqis demanded documentation that the Americans were unaccustomed to providing.
The current configuration of the embassy is smaller than the original plans that were drawn up at a time when officials believed a residual US military presence would remain in Iraq beyond 2011....
US officials believed that Iraqi officials would be far more cooperative than they have been in smoothing the transition from a military operation to a diplomatic mission led by US civilians. The expansion has exacted a toll on Iraqi government ministries, which are keen to exert their sovereignty after nearly nine years of war and occupation, and aggravated long-running tensions between the two countries.
The size of the embassy staff is even more remarkable when compared with other countries. Turkey, for instance, which is Iraq’s largest trading partner and wields more economic influence here than the United States, employs roughly 55 people at its embassy, and the number of actual diplomats is in the single digits.
The considerations to reduce the number of embassy personnel, US officials here said, reflects a belief that a quieter and humbler diplomatic presence could result in greater leverage over Iraqi affairs, particularly in mediating a political crisis that flared just as the troops were leaving.
Having fewer burly, bearded, and tattooed security men - who are currently the face of America to many Iraqis and evoke memories of horrible abuses - could help build trust with Iraqis, these officials believe....
Reducing the size of the embassy might have the added benefit of quieting the anti-Americanism of those who violently opposed the military occupation.
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"Hundreds of Iraqis cheer departure of US forces" Associated Press December 31, 2011
BAGHDAD - Hundreds of Sunni Muslims gathered in Baghdad yesterday to celebrate the withdrawal of American forces, but in a sign of the sectarian divisions that reemerged immediately after their departure, Shi’ite Muslims did not join the event.
Related: Occupation Iraq: Divide and Conquer
The celebration took place near the Abu Hanifa mosque, the main house of worship in the primarily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad....
In his sermon, the mosque’s preacher, Sheik Ahmed al-Taha, accused the Americans of stirring up sectarian tension among Iraqis.
“The occupiers created the sectarian conflict as an exit from the quagmire they found themselves in when they were facing 200 military operations against them every day,’’ Taha told worshipers....
Yeah, he is on to something there.
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