By Patricia Lee Sharpe
I can’t believe it. The U.S. is backing plans to build a luxury golf course adjacent to or in the Green Zone. Who uses a golf course? Mostly males. Monied males. Is this what’s needed in the center of a city that has suffered so badly?
Think of New York. What’s in the center of New York? Central Park.
What’s in the center of London? Hyde Park.
What’s in the center of Rome? The Villa Borghese.
What’s in the center of Paris? Lots of parks.
What’s in the center of Calcutta? The Maidan. Yes, the maidan was laid out by the British during the colonial period, but today it’s where kiddies ride ponies and boys play football/soccer and families picnic and lovers smooch behind the shrubbery. It’s one of the good things the British did during their long tenure. This would be a fine model for what the U.S. leaves behind in Baghdad—assuming the U.S. ever leaves, which is seldom contemplated under the Bush administration, although, in the long run, it will happen. Gracefully. Or otherwise.
Parks are a mark of civilization. They bring people together in the open air. They serve as lungs for a crowded city. They remind people caught up in the stressful necessities of urbanized life that there’s something called nature, which forms the bedrock of our existence. They give people as deep sense of freedom and ease.
Parks bring people together and, something very important, they don't come with entrance fees (as in Disneyish amusement “parks”) or greens fees. People stroll. They sit. They play with children or watch their children play. They chat. They debate. They laugh. They flirt. The enjoy the play of the seasons. When they leave the park, they feel relaxed and happy.
But instead of gifting the people of Bagdad with a spacious central park for the enjoyment of all Baghdadis, what is the Bush administration pushing? A golf course, where a handful of (mostly) middle-aged, VIPish males can hit a ball around velvety lawns while making deals with the same (and sometimes a few women, if they’re really really important or don’t mind inconvenient tee times).
Yes, the American cast of thousands and the other bigwigs who work in the Green Zone will be able to play nine holes or maybe even 18 right in the center of the city and then, no doubt, have drinks (alcoholic) in a luxurious clubhouse thereafter.
There’s a possible upside to this scheme. Maybe, if there’s a golf course next to the monster embassy in the Green Zone, the U.S. State department won’t have so much trouble filling all its Baghdad slots. I guess a golf course is a good way to bribe people into putting up with life in a sealed off, privileged enclave in the middle of a war zone.
And the jehadis can practice making holes in one with their occasional rockets.
I’m not making this up. The American military promoters admit that they are thinking very much of themselves and not the long-suffering people they’ll be posted among.
The $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some with deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, according to the lead military liaison for the project.For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy, whose total cost will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.
"When you have $1 billion hanging out there and 1,000 employees lying around, you kind of want to know who your neighbors are," said Captain Thomas Karnowski, the U.S. Navy officer who led the team that created the development plan. "You want to influence what happens in your neighborhood over time."
The U.S. has done so many inept things in Iraq. The golf course project will be one more indication that the U.S. is totally out of touch with the needs of real people.
How about putting the golf course money into building parks along the river banks? Parks for everybody. Oh? A river park wouldn’t be safe for Americans? Stupid me!
On the other hand, Iraqis too have raised their eyebrows.
Some Iraqi leaders even have drawn parallels to the U.S.-backed development plan and what Saddam Hussein did in the area. During his reign, the neighborhood was dominated by family and tribal allies, political loyalists and members of his elite Republican Guard.
Furthermore, and I can't emphasize this too much, all this smacks of the dirty O-word. That’s occupation.
That aside, the project is being whitewashed as having the blessing of the mayor of Baghdad. And how was that blessing obtained? How much did it cost under the table and how was the money channeled? I’d like the opinion of a courageous inspector general here, an inspector general of proven integrity and independence. Perhaps I am being a tad too cynical here. But the process of rebuilding Iraq has been, to a very large extent, a tale of corruption and irresponsibility. The benefits to ordinary Iraqis have not been commensurate with the sums laid out by the U.S.
What’s more, it’s hard for me to see that any mayor who favors investment in golf courses run for profit over parks provided freely to the people of the city can be cited as a man who has the best interests of his electorate at heart.
And I wonder if anyone still serving in what's left of the public diplomacy sphere at the State Department was consulted on this move? Probably not. Diplomacy has mostly been handed over to the Pentagon, which is of course the sponsor of the golf course project.
What the hell! Let them eat golf balls.