The white elephant embassy

Where is the United States building its biggest and most expensive embassy? London perhaps, the Capital of the Poodle, America's most steadfast ally? Nope. Moscow, to keep its erstwhile Cold War adversary under tight supervision? Nope. Beijing, the rising power in the East, which owns a large chunk of U.S Treasury bills and runs up America's largest trade deficit? No, once again.

The U.S. is building a 592 million dollar, 42 hectares, Vatican-sized embassy in ... Baghdad. (The Guardian: One building that's been built on time and on budget in Iraq: America's fortress embassy)

To future historians it will no doubt be known as the White Elephant Embassy. Pretty soon the U.S. military will be leaving Iraq, either forced out by the U.S. Congress or by the Iraqi resistance, but leave they will. The result will be that the American Vatican in the Green Zone will be a sitting duck, a defenseless white elephant waiting to be shot. Surely, the Iraqi army will not be able to defend the U.S. embassy. As a symbol of the U.S. occupation, it will be blown to pieces. 592 million dollar gone up in smoke. Never mind, the American contractors building the Vatican in the heart of a Muslim nation will report handsome profits to their shareholders.

27 buildings, housing 615 diplomats and support staff, wearing helmets and body armor, crouching behind sandbags. 592 million dollar wasted on a useless edifice, money which could have been used to build hospitals, schools and power stations for the suffering Iraqi people. Welcome to America's Greatest Embassy...