Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.
That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future....
For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.
[From The Raw Story | US-backed plan sees shiny future for embattled Green Zone]
OK, so you schedule a luxury vacation in glamouricious downtown Baghdad and you wind up as part of a "high-end buffer zone"? Is that like, I don't know, "human shield"?
Oh I don't think so, bunky.
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