The Fish at al-Faw Palace

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

We Make The New York Times

In Iraq, Last Days at Camp Victory's Version of Five-Star Hotel.

[ . . . ]

Last week, while the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was at the Joint Visitors Bureau [J.V.B.], the “Incoming!” alarm went off in the middle of the night as sensors tracked a rocket attack. Everyone jumped out of bed and into gym shorts and scrambled into cement bunkers until the all-clear sounded 15 minutes later.

To pass the quieter hours, soldiers assigned to the J.V.B. cast fishing lines into the lake that separates it from the looming palace that is headquarters for United States Forces-Iraq.

The lake is home to a vicious breed of carp grown giant by constant gorging on food refuse. The Camp Victory carp are so conditioned by human feeding that any shadow over the water causes them to roil the surface like piranhas in a James Bond movie. One soldier-fisherman last week had a biceps tattoo that read “Carpe Diem,” suggesting a pun about seizing the fish of the day.

And then there is golf.

A tee has been set on the back porch of the J.V.B., and soldiers use the lake as a driving range. At night, they like to crack open incandescent tubes meant for marking landing zones and roadways, coating golf balls in glowing orange and green chemicals. Like tracer bullets, the balls arc over and vanish into the lake, one more reason not to eat the carp. [emphasis added]

Comment: We appreciate the publicity in The New York Times. Thank you!

Sincerely,

The Fish at Al-Faw Palace
Camp Victory, Victory Base Complex [VBC]
Baghdad, Iraq

Fish Haiku #15

Giant sacred Carp

Living in the lakes protect

Iraq's future hopes.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Don't Forget the Fish!

U.S. Troops in Iraq Leaving Saddam Palaces

[ . . . ]

A prime property at the Victory [Base] Complex is Al Faw palace, whose construction became Saddam's personal architectural hobby. He made more than 400 changes to the plans, according to the history of the complex.

"It has gorgeous ceilings and chandeliers, but we use it like a regular office building albeit with a lot more marble," [former U.S. military historian in Iraq Col. Les] Melnyk said.

Saddam's most dramatic – and, as it turns out, most damaging – alteration grew from paranoia. Flying over the building, he thought he saw a cross woven into the design and suspected the Yugoslav architects did it on purpose.

"He assumed, being the paranoid man ... that he was, that they were trying to insert a Christian symbol into his country. So he made the decision on the spot to double the size of the palace," Melnyk said.

The result of the hasty remake is that the back half of the palace is unstable, Melnyk said. Cracks are showing, chunks of the walls are falling off, and the palace may cease to be inhabitable. Meanwhile, the staircases are chipped and nicked after years of U.S. troops' weapons accidentally banging into them.

The troops do not mind climbing three floors just to use the massive bathroom – 12 sinks in one room alone. The bidets are used to store toilet paper.

The U.S. military has made many improvements to the palaces it has occupied – smoke detectors, new wiring, upgraded plumbing. Interiors have become cubicled office space and machines clean the floors at Al Faw.

The security agreement governing the withdrawal, however, does not require the U.S. to fix any damage it has caused to these buildings.

It does not help that the palaces were not always built very well. In the back of Al Faw, the paint looks haphazardly applied to the plaster ceiling moldings, the chandeliers in the hallway do not line up and the floor tiles are uneven.

Saddam was thinking "Versailles," but the materials he bought were more half-price sale at Home Depot. At Al Faw the banisters are gypsum, not marble. The Arabic script on the walls looks like gold but it is really brass.

Comment:

It's difficult to believe that this reporter toured Al-Faw Palace and didn't notice The Fish.

Let's hope that The Fish continue to entertain - and be fed by - distinguished visitors and, more importantly, their hard-working entourages.

Fish Haiku #15

Giant sacred carp

Living in the lakes protect

Iraq's future hopes.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Goslings at Lake around Al-Faw Palace: Yummy!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

We make the Austin [TX] Statesman

Money quote from The Austin Statesman:

Camp Victory's Odd Allure

Former hunting resort is now U.S. military hub near Baghdad.

[ . . . ]

The nerve center of the base is the magnificent Al Faw Palace , a former vacation retreat of Saddam Hussein's next to another artificial lake. It's now home to American generals and officers running day to day operations in Iraq, but it still guards its share of mystery. "There's a lot of myths and urban legends that work their way into the story," said Lt. Col. Les' Melnyk, the Army's historian at Camp Victory, who gives regular tours of the palace.

Rumor has it that the place used to be a brothel or torture chamber, had a basement full of gold bars at the time of the invasion of Baghdad and that the fish in the lake eat ducklings (and perhaps small children).

[ . . . ]

Comment: Sorry, but we would never consider eating small children.