This has been needling at me for a while. I have heard rumors of quite the US Embassy being built in Iraq.

To some it is, or will be, passed off and over as " Well of course we are building one there." As if it is absurd to think otherwise. I disagree with that mentality. But I think I can handle it.

Now admittedly, I haven't looked into it further. Heck, it's very existience is still in question for me right now. I am going to look into it. But if what I recall hearing is true, I'd like to know more. It certainly sounded like a project that seemed to be on the kind of a scale that would be worthy of some more education. I mean, I was hearing some pretty outlandish figures. Conversely, if what I have heard proves NOT to be true, I am going to feel quite duped and will feel like those who point to the left as liars to snow-job the public and using scare tactics to try and make their point - well - those who say that would be right. I will be twice as pissed.

So as an excersise, and really I can't tell if you are playing fair or not - it's on the honor system, let me pose some questions;

Obviously I can't unring your knowledge bell. That is to say, if you already know a bit about a US Embassy being built in Iraq, that's enough for you to make your point. But before you go looking to see if it exists, finding out costs and time involved and who has the contracts and all that and then forming your answer to fit the facts that you find out about it, let me ask you; What would be the minimum cost - in dollars - that would trigger, in YOU, a little bit of surprise? I mean, enough to go " Hey wait a minute. I thought the goal was to get Iraq on their own feet so we could leave. Why are we building a facility THIS large? A facility THIS large does not give me the impression that we have such noble " we are liberators " feelings. It feels like a full-on occupation."

Or maybe not a number, but be honest with yourself - and with me - is there ANY situation that would give you pause for a project like this? What's a scenario in which you would feel like it's a little out of place for us to do THAT?

Do you follow what I mean? I'm not being as articulate as I have it in my head and I am trying to ask it in the least leading way possible. I guess if I am going to be honest with you, I should say and acknowledge that maybe you DO want a full-on occupation. Maybe you DO want thousands of families, US families, living there. Are you ok with that? Is that what you think any of us signed up for? Have you ever been asked to support that? What about Iraqi citizens? Should they have a say in that?

I think what we're doing is showing the Iraqis that we can out-build Saddam in the palace building game.

Of course I'm surprised, but somehow, like most other things Bush-related, rational explaintions are absent. And if we ask for any kind of explaination at all, we'll just get facts twisted to fit a reason.

In one word, dumbth.