Hubris of US Administration

Apparently the US is building an enormous embassy inside the green zone in Baghdad.  Covering 104 acres and costing $600 million, the complex will be the biggest and most expensive US embassy on the planet.  In a way, it is a perfect metaphor for the runaway hubris of the current US administration. Normally an embassy is about diplomacy.

But given the de facto US power in the country, the relationship between the US and the Iraqi governments is less diplomacy than it is puppetry, even if pulling the strings doesn't always have the desired effect. The other key role of an embassy is to protect the interests of its nationals in a given territory.  

In this case, however, the vast bulk of those US nationals in Iraq are there in the form of an occupying army.  They won't be calling at the new embassy to renew their papers any time soon.  Furthermore, the building will be heavily fortified and will probably the most impregnable embassy in the world. Surely that says something about the end result of the mission that was embarked upon with such gusto four years ago. One commentator jibbed that the complex had better have a large roof so that the helicopters can swoop to pluck the staff to safety in the event of a cut and run.  

Sadly, he may well be right, and one can easily imagine that as the last chopper lifts off, the embassy's new occupiers will rush into its chambers in delight, much as US troops did in Saddam's palace back in April, 2003.