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It saddens me that our government is building this monument to empire. Embassies function as a handy piece of the home country in nations all around the world, and in normal times they smooth communications with that country and the host. I suggest that this is not the case with the largest, most expensive U.S. embassy ever constructed.

This edifice is intended to intimidate those Iraqis who see it. Certainly, should any have occasion to enter on business, they will be hard-pressed not to compare it with Saddam Hussein's many palaces. The U.S. citizens who live and work there will have a very comfortable time of it, considering the appointments evident in released plans for the site. All others will be reminded that this embassy has other functions.

In spite of soothing words to the American public concerning the coming oil shortages, our government cannot but be taking up close proximity to several vast oilfields located conveniently near U.S. military bases. Control of those bases need only be channeled through the U.S. embassy in order to ensure that our forces can quickly seize massive oil supplies in advance of international resource wars. China has been very publicly contracting for central Asian oil supplies for the past year and a half. We are obviously-though "unofficially"-ensuring that we can continue to feed the beast of our "addiction to oil," as President Bush terms it.

Will the primary mission of our largest embassy be diplomatic or military? I believe the answer depends largely on the ease with which we can continue to control Iraqis in their own country and the projected success of our access to the country's oil. Since our diplomatic efforts to date in Iraq have amounted to a few photographic opportunities for the President and some of his senior appointees, this scenario seems likely to come to pass.

"Justification" seems to imply that there may be something amiss in our plans. I agree with that implication, especially given the U.S. administration's saber-rattling posture for the past seven years. Will we seek peace in Iraq as diligently as we seek their oil? Which is more precious to us, and which would we be able better to utilize for our own national interests.

We cannot justify what should never have been. A smaller embassy with a diplomatic mission would have sufficed, but this imperial monster declares aloud, "Fear me."

Learn more about this author, Jon Dainty Sr..
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