I know the first thought that many of you may have had when you read the title was something along the lines of running to turn on CNN to see what happened and who we lost to. Sorry to sound the alarms but the title of my post comes from one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces that I visited last weekend. After finding out that my mission was complete here and that I was about to redeploy(that’s another way of saying get the hell out of here in Army speak), a couple of us decided to take a tour of some of Saddam’s governmental buildings that are open to the military in Baghdad.
The base that I worked on while I was there, Camp Cropper, was actually part of a rather large complex of bases that comprise the Victory Base Complex. The smaller bases are all interconnected and walled off from the rest of the city. To give you an example of how large VBC is, it took us 45 minutes to drive across it and get to the tour. It was a little bizarre and exciting to get in a vehicle for the first time in months, albeit a rundown bus.
The first stop on the tour was the Victory Over America Palace which was actually under construction when the war started. Saddam, like every good dictator, excelled in propaganda. It seems his definition of victory was not necessarily defeating the US, but in preventing us from removing him from power in the First Gulf War. Oh and remember the Food for Oil Program? Well instead of getting food to hungry Iraqi’s, the money went to finance the construction of this palace. Saddam was nothing if not resourceful.
The first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the building. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything built to its scale. It’s absurdly large. During the first days of the war in 2003 it was destroyed by the USS Bunker Hill which was sitting in the Persian Gulf. The damage to the front portico was incredible, and it was a bit scary walking into the building underneath all the twisted metal that seemed to be hanging by a string.
Upon entering the palace, we passed by wall after wall of marble which adorned the outside of the building as well. It looked like marble anyway – it was actually polished granite made to look like marble. In fact, throughout the buildings that we saw on this day, the frugality of construction was a recurring theme. The wood in the picture above was basically plywood made to look like cedar. Once finished all the white areas would have been painted.
From the balcony of one of the ballrooms we could see a smaller separate building. If you look closely, you can see that balcony has hearts carved into it along its entire length. This was one of Saddam’s pleasure palaces where he kept his harem. Interestingly enough, the building next door, just out of frame was his mother-in-law’s house.
Saddam, perhaps after a whimsical night in the pleasure palace, also decided that it would be nice to build his grandchildren a replica of Bedrock as seen in the photo above. While Fred and Barnie were nowhere to be found, the place is complete with apartments, kitchens, water slides and elevators.
After touring the second floor it was time to make our way up the marble stair case to the grand ballroom. If the height of the stairs looks a little off to you, that’s because they are. No one is really sure why – shoddy craftsmanship may be to blame. However, after walking up them myself, they were so far off that it must have been intentional. It’s more likely that Saddam employed some medieval castle strategy in making his palace. He would know that height of the stairs if he needed to run up them, but intruders would not and likely trip while chasing after him. The bombed out glass shell on the right was Saddam’s personal elevator. There is an identical one on the left for everyone else to use.
Missile number two was a direct hit in the grand ballroom upstairs. The room itself must have been impressive when completed. The sheer scale of it was unbelievable; it was large enough for a football field to fit in without a problem. Looking out from the balcony of the grand ballroom in the picture below it is possible to see more of the palace complex. The building in the foreground is Uday’s house and in the far distance is the Baath Party Headquarters.
Who knew that there was a lake in Baghdad? Well, there actually wasn’t until this palace complex was built. Saddam had the whole area excavated to a depth of about five feet and filled it with the filtered water of the Baghdad water supply – during the filling of the lake the population was without running water for three days – what a guy! In the distance you can barely make out a cluster of trees. It was there that Uday kept his pets. Apparently the guy was obsessed with jungles and had several lions and tigers. One of his favorite pastimes was to throw his enemies into this little perverted zoo and watch as the lions and tigers (but not bears, oh my) devoured them.
One last interesting thing to note in the picture is the small islands dotted here and there on the lake. These are more pleasure palaces for the Baath Party leaders when they needed to escape a little while from their wives. You see in Islam, Allah cannot see over the water. So I guess this is their version of Vegas – what happens over the water stays over the water.
From the Victory Over America Palace, we traveled to the Baath Party Headquarters, the de facto headquarters of Saddam’s regime. This building was also destroyed during the first days of the war in 2003 – mainly by tomahawk missiles and JDAM’s dropped by bombers. It was actually a beautiful building and one of the only places in the city that had a nice breeze. The photo above looks out onto what was the central area of the building.
The length of every hallway in the building was adorned with the intricate painting like in the photo above. The chandeliers, while impressive looking, are actually quite cheap – nothing but aluminum painted with gold.
When Dan Rather interviewed Saddam just prior to the US invasion in 2003 he did so here. The twisted metal hanging from the ceiling was actually a long rectangular chandelier – which Saddam boasted several times as the longest chandelier in the world. Again, it’s nothing but painted aluminum.
The tour came to an end in this room, which was obviously reduced to rubble by a tomahawk missile. It was a large meeting room and on the night of the attack, some 250 Baath Party members were watching a movie when they were killed. The room was never cleaned up after the attack and US Forces still use it for training their cadaver dogs. Oh, and the movie that they were watching that fateful night? Well when US Special Forces got on the scene a couple of days later it was still in the projector – the Baathists were watching the infidel Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
I’ll finish up the post with a picture of myself in front of one of only three remaining murals left of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. This particular one is located at the headquarters of the Iraqi National Guard. Every time I look at it I can’t believe that I was actually in Baghdad. You never know where you’re going to end up in life – but this certainly wasn’t one of the locations that I had thought about. Being over here makes you wonder about a lot of things – should we be here, what will are legacy be, and is it really this hot? Whatever your politics may be, I thank all of you for taking the time to read about my experiences.
However much you may hate this war or the man who started it, I just ask that you try to think about the men and women over here serving. Not necessarily people like myself who admittedly have it pretty good, but people like the privates who have spent years of their life here since the war began, making close to minimum wage and rarely asking why. They come here because their country asked them to and for them it’s reason enough. They are the ones who really make things happen on a daily basis, and it’s been a tremendous honor and learning opportunity for me to be here with them and patch them up every once in a while. I like to think I’ve become a better person throughout this experience and in large part it’s because of the people who have surrounded me during my time here.
This has certainly been hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, and while being around such wonderful people here made it bearable, it is the outpouring of support from everyone back at home that has truly sustained me. Be it an email, a care package, or a comment to my blog posts – I can never thank you all enough for your love and support. I’m a pretty lucky guy. Except for right now I guess – the A/C just broke and it’s 120 outside.
