For those who appreciate a little comedy of the absurd with their Saturday morning coffee I recommend an article on the Baghdad Embassy/Mausoleum in today’s Wash Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082803166.html. The Embassy, the largest in the world, will cost $1.5 billion to run this year, rising to $1.8 billion in 2010 and 2011. The Embassy has 88 State Department Security officers directing 1,300 security contractors and 1,900 perimeter guards. That is the equivalent of an Army combat brigade. To guard an Embassy!
At the end of the article is a report of the deaths of two US soldiers yesterday “when their convoy was attacked IN BAGHDAD” (my emphasis).
Thomas O. Meehan 
It’s time we started taking bets on into who’s custody this structure will eventually fall, and to what purpose.
My guess is that it will make a fine Iranian embassy. On the other hand it might make a fine spa-multiplex center, complete with pools parking and lounges. Yes I can see it now.