Where diplomats go to be punished

By Libby Spencer


Never underestimate Bush's delusions of grandeur. While his occupation falls apart, he's busy building the world's biggest and most expensive embassy.

The $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-resistant walls. The compound is a symbol both of how much the United States has invested in Iraq and how the circumstances of its involvement are changing.

We're paying $600 mil for that ugly fortress? It looks more like a gigantic bunker than an embassy and at 104 acres, it's not a diplomatic outpost, it's a small town. One can imagine Bush envisioned himself in the royaly appointed HQ, deep inside the compound, directing the spread of democracy all over the Middle East when he ordered the hideous monstrosity built. He probably still does, if his hold on reality is as tenuous as I think it is . Let's face it, a guy who jumps into an orchestra pit to conduct his own exit music is simply not firing on all cylinders.

But the Decider/Commander Guy's nervous breakdown aside, an "embassy" of that size does not speak of a reduced presence in Iraq -- ever. It shouts shadow government, something not lost on the average Iraqi who without reliable electricity some four years after the "liberation," sits in the dark while the lights in the US compounds blaze. No wonder they love us so much.

(Photo from Yahoo news.)