White elephant

Submitted by Charles Light (United States), Apr 1, 2010 at 06:28

Mr. Pipes,

I've been working the Baghdad project for seven years. I've been on the ground there throughout all the major building efforts. While I agree wholeheartedly with 99.9% of your article on the White Elephant, please allow me to correct one minor error in your report. You stated that the perimeter walls were 15 feet thick....no. The anti ram walls around the Embassy are approximately 12 to 14 inches think. 15 foot thick walls would have cost us about 20 times the cost of the 14 inch thick walls. I like your reporting, you are mostly spot on with everything you report, but this one minor error was enough of mistake that I thought I'd comment on it.

Thanks, Charles Light, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Baghdad, Iraq.

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