Beer, bikinis, Baghdad?

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At Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, Tuesday is now karaoke night

`It's Saigon all over again' at the temporary home of Iraq's latest conquerors

BAGHDAD—Tuesday night is karaoke night at Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace in central Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

To the beat of the music, Iraq's latest conquerors triumphantly take to a stage that dominates the inner courtyard of what is today the temporary U.S. embassy in Baghdad and bawl out old rock 'n' roll and blues anthems to their hearts' content.

A few metres away, soldiers take off their shirts to play volleyball, U.S. State Department contractors have a beer party on the lawn and bikini-clad embassy workers splash in the swimming pool. An awestruck British journalist gazing at the scene for the first time absent-mindedly mumbles, "It's Saigon all over again."

Should Saddam decide to revisit his old haunts, he would undoubtedly be in for a very unpleasant surprise. For one thing, he would not even make it through into his old living quarters. Aside from the fact that the current U.S. embassy and former Republican Palace is inside the Green Zone (a 1,000-hectare restricted area in the heart of Baghdad ringed by four-metre blast walls and criss-crossed by still more concrete barriers, concertina wire and checkpoints anchored by U.S. armoured vehicles), a complex web of security has also been thrown up around the palace itself. X-ray machines, a body search and numerous checkpoints stand between the casual visitor and the palace gate.

Ordinary journalists armed with a standard press pass must be escorted everywhere around the Green Zone. As one American scribe for the military paper Stars and Stripes commented, "these passes place you one step above an Iraqi terrorist detainee."

Going past the last guard booth before the palace, one of the Peruvian private security men gives one visitor a particularly thorough pat-down before starting to run an explosives-sensitive sensor over him. Seeing this, his colleague tells him in Spanish not to bother.

"Let him go. He's American, not Iraqi," the guard advises.

Inside the palace, the extraordinary architecture induces visitors to wander awestruck through the grandiose corridors. The palace is a neo-Babylonian affair built on a massive scale and composed of tremendous pillars, bulky double-leafed doors, soaring domes and a labyrinth of passages decked out in elaborate, chintzy Middle Eastern couches and faux Louis XIV armchairs.

To the sides, five-metre-high entrances open up onto crowded chambers now used as offices, where workstations sag under the load of computers and all the detritus of a modern embassy office.

"Pretty kitsch, eh?" an army escort grins. "Looks as if Saddam commissioned Liberace and Elvis to build this place."

After the aloof grandeur of the palace, the spacious Kellogg, Brown and Root-operated cafeteria stuns one with the abundance of food on offer. At the packed buffets, the mouth-watering range of food options stretches from prime cuts of tender roast beef to crab delicacies, chili-smothered baked potatoes, a dazzling array of salads, several cakes and fruit pies for dessert, refrigerators stacked with soft drinks and an undulating array of pasta dishes.

Hundreds of diplomats, military people and contractors crowd into the noisy, air-conditioned premises for dinner, while others take their food out into the garden.

Outside, in the garden, the beat of heavy rock music rolls around the lawn, striking a discordant chord with the softly illuminated architecture of the palace reflected in the pool.

Suited State Department diplomats sit at the tables dotting the lawn, eating out of plastic, one-use trays alongside groups of T-shirt-wearing contractors, their M-3 rifles propped up against the garden chairs.

The majority of U.S. diplomats come to Baghdad on short, three-month rotations. Word in the State Department is that a short posting here is essential for those looking for rapid promotion later on.

The three-month rotations weigh in at just a quarter of the average military tour of duty. With few opportunities to go out into highly unstable Baghdad, it is no wonder many U.S. diplomats seem to think they are still picnicking by the Potomac River back home.

The karaoke and poolside volleyball will soon be transferred from the Republican Palace to a massive 42-hectare complex under construction inside the Green Zone. When ready, it will be the largest U.S. embassy in the world. The $592 million (U.S.) facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 foreign workers housed nearby. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

Once built, the embassy will be entirely self-sufficient and provide a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and American Club, and its own power generation and water-treatment for its one thousand staff.

The size of Vatican City, the complex will be six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and two-thirds the acreage of Washington's National Mall. Iraq's interim government transferred the land to U.S. ownership in October 2004 under an agreement whose terms were undisclosed. The Republican Palace will be turned back to the Iraqi government.

But until next year, when the project is to be completed, Saigon nights will continue at Baghdad's Republican Palace.

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