I briefly mentioned this subject in the Poverty thread, but feel it deserves a thread of its own. The title is from an article in the April 22, 2007 "Parade Magazine" and not the NYTimes as I had guessed. Here's the article:

It is rumored to be as large as the Vatican, to cost nearly $1 billion and to feature a high-rise building. It's our new (US) embassy in Baghdad, and the need for such a large compound has drawn the criticism of former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and others. But retired Maj. Gen. Charles E. Williams, who has overseen the State Department's construction of 42 U.S. embassies in the last six years, says those stories are wrong. The final site, he told us in an interview, won't rival the Vatican: It will be 65 acres - not 104, as reported. Interim facilities will be returned to the Iraqi community once the compound is finished. It also "will stay as flat as possible, in keeping with Baghdad's architecture," Williams added. "By contrast, our embassy in Cairo goes very high." As for cost, it will be around $600 million, since Congress appropriated less than the 1.3 billion originally planned. A Senate report says that the embassy campus will included six apartment buildings, two office buildings, residences for the ambassador and his deputy, a gym, pool, club, beauty salon, food court, vehicle-repair center, warehouse and an emergency exit, plus its own power and water.
"When we build an embassy, we want to be part of the host country's fabric," Williams said, noting that our new embassy in Cambodia is being used by the locals as a wedding-photo backdrop. Whether the new Baghdad embassy will ever enjoy that romantic role remains to be seen. It is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, off-limits to most Iraqis. The multiple companies and the construction workers hired for the project - reportedly 900 of them, mostly Asian - are due to finish and go home this summer. Until then, more than 1,000 civilian and military personnel remain housed in our current embassy, one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.

And we wonder why we're called "Ugly Americans?" Maybe this does belong on the poverty thread? We built 42 new embassies on Bush's watch? What a surprise. Our tax dollars.