Fortress America in Baghdad

Opened in the midst of the slaughter in Gaza and the twilight of Bush’s presidency, the new American embassy in Baghdad garnered less coverage than when its astronomical budget was first publicized in 2005. The opening was more than the completion of the largest and most expensive embassy in the world. It marked the day the US diplomatic corps moved out of Saddam Hussein’s former palace and handed it over to the Iraqi government, five days after US forces officially came under an Iraqi mandate on New Year’s day. Many Iraqis are eyeing warily the move from one palace to what is essentially an even larger one. The embassy is far grander — albeit minus the gold plated bathroom fixtures — than anything Hussein ever built during his nefarious reign. It is on a level of Cold War era grandeur, similar in scope to the colossal project Nicolae Ceaucescu attempted