By Daniel Pipes
Everything about this embassy, planned at the height of the U.S. occupation in 2004, is gargantuan. As the largest diplomatic facility on Earth, it extends 104 acres (42 hectares), making it ten times larger than the next largest embassy complex (the U.S. mission in Beijing) and only slightly smaller than Vatican City. A mini-city unto itself, its 21 buildings include stores, restaurants, schools, a movie theater, fire station, and facilities for athletics, electricity, telecommunications, water, and wastewater. Fifteen-foot thick walls protect the complex. Some 5,500 staff live there. The annual embassy budget comes to about $1.5 billion.
http://www.danielpipes.org/8171/white-elephant-in-baghdad
Deutsche Übersetzung:
http://de.danielpipes.org/8178/fehlinvestition-in-bagdad
