IRAQ: U.S. Embassy dedicated

The United States formally dedicated its new $592-million embassy in Iraq on Monday, the largest and most expensive American embassy in the world.

Its scale, according to the dedication ceremony program, "reflects the importance of the U.S.-Iraqi bilateral relationship."

If superlatives were the order of the day, the ceremony reflected it. Invited guests filtered through extra tight security, walked down yards and yards of red carpet, and watched as white-gloved Marines raised a giant American flag up a massive flagpole that stretched higher than the buildings in the Embassy compound. There was even a gigantic sheet cake decorated like an American flag as big as the table it sat on.

Public officials, too, offered up superlatives on what they described as a historic day.

Iraqi president Jalal Talabani called the new embassy a "landmark edifice," made possible only by the "courage decision by President Bush to liberate Iraq."

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said no single period since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has been more important than the last week, during which two significant events took place: the Americans handed military control back to Iraq on Jan. 1 and raised the flag on the new embassy, vacating Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace.

"Iraq is in a new era and so is the Iraqi-U.S. relationship," Crocker said.

The embassy took three years to build and will house more than 1,200 American staffers from 14 different agencies.

— Kimi Yoshino in Baghdad

Photos: Top, the new U.S. Embassy, bottom, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, left, with Iraqi Prime Minister Jalal Talabani. Credit: Eric Brooks, U.S. Embassy, Baghdad.

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Comments

[tom]

how much does this add to our 10 trillion dollar national debt? This ridiculous war has done nothing to solve the problems of the Middle East. We're headed to wwIII.

[Jack]

To elaborate more on Fred comment, It is very natural when you're flushed with Iraqi oil and Queen of England at your side to get a constant erections and have fireworks in background to top it off, after party smoke anyone!

[OIFVet]

Well, one American Embassy in the world has to be the largest and strongest. Why not in Baghdad? It would be kind of stupid to build it in Paris, or Stockholm, or Rome, or Tokyo, or ...

Congratulations and best wishes to the Iraqi government, U.S./Coalition Forces, DoD, DoS personnel and everybody else who kicked al-Qaeda's butt, Saddam's butt, and Al-Sadr's butt, made so many liberals mad, and made victory possible.

[george]

It seems that the Bush haters are desperate to find some bad news about Iraq, so I guess they have to try to spin the opening of the new embassy into bad news. I think the embassy, and the new Iraq democracy generally, may turn out to be enormously important and beneficial with regard to U.S. policy in the middle east. Or, would you rather have Sadaam in there, thumbing his nose at the world while secretly starting to rebuild his weapons programs?

[Bugs222]

Another monument to stupidity and Bush's "edifice complex."

[Fred Simpson]

This is Pres. George W. Bush's last erection.

[steve rodriguez]

A great tribute to Pres. Bush!!!!

[ALEX]

More splendid insipid photo evidence, to be sure,
that the ongoing-interminable media embedded
agreement has stripped our supposed Free Press
of all meaningfulness and usefulness to the People!!!