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Some Mega Bunker!

If one is to believe the US Administration it will, certainly eventually, draw down the number of troops in war-torn Iraq. Of course, that of itself would not mean that the US does not intend to maintain a significant presence in Iraq. It would be consistent with the Administration's aim - as many have claimed - to secure the supply of oil from Iraq and in the process keep more than an element of "control" of the country.

More than some compelling support for the assertion that the US is in Iraq for the long haul comes from this piece from Vanity Fair on the latest information on the now being built US Embassy in Baghdad:

"The new American Embassy in Baghdad will be the largest, least welcoming, and most lavish embassy in the world: a $600 million massively fortified compound with 619 blast-resistant apartments and a food court fit for a shopping mall."

And

"The compound, which will be completed by late fall, is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, a walled expanse the size of Vatican City, containing 21 reinforced buildings on a 104-acre site along the Tigris River, enclosed within an extension of the Green Zone which stretches toward the airport road. The new embassy cost $600 million to build, and is expected to cost another $1.2 billion a year to run—a high price even by the profligate standards of the war in Iraq."

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