The New "Embassy" -- Blatant Symbol

The New Embassy Compound (NEC) in Baghdad's Green Zone is an undeniable symbol, blatantly broadcasting to the world the main purpose of the war -- to use Iraq as a compliant permanent military base for American control of Middle East oil and geopolitical location. With its unprecedented 104-acre size, $750 million construction cost, $1 billion estimated annual operating cost, fortified isolation, and connectivity to "enduring" military bases, it is nonfunctional as a normal embassy and clearly designed as a military command and control center. And "protecting" it has become the "reason" given by presidential candidates for continuing to occupy Iraq into the future.

For a more detailed perspective on the NEC, see our background description.

This site provides details about the End The War First (ETWF) strategy and the New Embassy Compound in Baghdad. It also makes available background documents and up-to-date articles of news and analysis that provide support for the ETWF strategy by illustrating the necessity of ending the war as quickly as possible, rather than letting it continue into next year and the next administration. These documents highlight the true aims of the war/occupation, the damaging effects of the war on both the military and foreign policy of the U.S. and on the situation in the Middle East, and ongoing administration policy moves aimed at making disengagement efforts by the next administration difficult or impossible. This information is accessible via either

• the Site Map (with dates of most recent articles) or
• the black navigation bars at the top and bottom of every page.

The following current news articles underscore the importance of ending this war quickly, far before the election and the end of the Bush administration:

Iraqis Condemn American Demands, June 11.
The Bush administration is continuing attempts to negotiate a long-term agreement locking in a U.S. occupation of Iraq, though it is encountering opposition from Iraqi officials concerned about sovereignty.

Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August', May 28.
". . . a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Quds force."

Embassy De-Fund Strategy -- The strategy introduced below makes it possible for Congress to bypass the Bush/Republican obstruction that has prevented Congress from following through on the 2006 mandate to end the war. The strategy is designed to end the war politically -- quickly, responsibly and honorably -- to achieve the only possible victory by the following steps, which are linked to detailed explanations on the Strategy Summary page:

1. Introduce a bill to defund the imperially-symbolic New Embassy Compound in Baghdad.
2. Reframe the debate by holding subpoena-supported hearings and debates on this bill to expose the war's true purpose and determine the basic 21st century direction of American foreign policy.
3. End the war politically quickly, responsibly, and honorably -- by book-ending the disastrous October 2002 Congressional military authorization resolution with another resolution explicitly repudiating the true occupation/war aims and rescinding the original resolution.
4. Start impeachment procedings if the administration interferes with or refuses to abide by the war-ending resolution

A responsible and honorable ending of Bush's Iraq War must include a massive post-war job-creating rehabilitation effort (analogous to the post-WWII Marshall Plan in Europe), managed by a coalition of the UN and Middle East neighbors, and funded largely by part of the "peace dividend" of American troop withdrawals, to cut the massive unemployment which is a primary cause of the corruption and violence in Iraq.