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I have spent 15 months in Iraq on deployment and I have seen the devastation that happens on a day to day basis. It is a complex situation where there are hardly any black and white answers. Just like there is no easy answer for the withdrawal of troops, there is no easy answer, and especially not a yes or a no, for spending an enormous amount of money on a piece of sovereign American soil in Iraq.

Right now is not the time to build "Fortress America" in Iraq. It just wouldn't serve much of a purpose. The decision makers living in Iraq are living in the heart of Baghdad called the "Green Zone," where the current embassy is located. For the time being, the close to 1000 employees, are working from the Republican Palace in the Green Zone. For the time being, they are doing their job in relative comfort compared to other government employees in the region.
Of course it is necessary to have an embassy in Iraq, this is one of the first steps that a burgeoning country takes to create alliances with other countries.
In order for Iraq to be a self sufficient country, many developments have to be made. One of the steps that needs to be taken is a U.S. embassy, but there are other steps that need to be taken first and it doesn't seem fit to spend such an insane amount of money on an embassy when it can be done for a lot less capital in the future.
Security in Iraq is obviously not up to the standards of other countries where permanent U.S. embassies are located. It just seems fit that security would be the number one priority before other huge projects are started. You wouldn't start writing a term paper if somebody was punching you in the face. Of course other things need to be accomplished while the country is being secured, such as rebuilding the Iraqi stock market and getting the ministries up and running. Mortars go off everyday inside the Green zone and building a 600 million dollar embassy just doesn't seem to very rational at this point in time. It definitely should not be at the top of the list of priorities.
Years down the road after major operations are finished in the country there will be a huge U.S. embassy in Baghdad that will not be serving a purpose for such a large and expensive building. While reading about this embassy being the largest and most expensive in the world, I couldn't help but to be reminded of the Russian embassy in Berlin. The embassy there is massive and serves to remind the German people that at one time they were under the choke of the Iron Curtain. Is that what we are mimicking?

Learn more about this author, Steven Groetken.
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