In yet another brilliant display of arrogance, the Bush administration has designed a 104 acre compound intended to serve as the largest embassy in the world.

The $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-resistant walls. The compound is a symbol both of how much the United States has invested in Iraq and how the circumstances of its involvement are changing.

Translation: We're fucked, we turned the country into a bigger mess than its ever been before, and now we have to live here --- in constant fear.

The 21-building complex on the Tigris River was envisioned three years ago partly as a headquarters for the democratic expansion in the Middle East that President Bush identified as the organizing principle for foreign policy in his second term.

Who wants to bet me that three years ago President Bush thought Iraq would be a breeze and this hub would serve as the perfect place to kick back and watch Tehran fall along with Baghdad?

"What you have is a situation in which they are building an embassy without really thinking about what its functions are," said Edward Peck, a former top U.S. diplomat in Iraq.

Someone's making sense. Then again, this is the same person, who on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said: "When you take out Saddam Hussein, the key question you have to ask then is, what happens after that? And we don't have a clue. Nobody knows, but it's probably going to be bad."

Remember when Dick Cheney said Americans would be greeted as liberators? Who knew chants of "death to Americans" was intended to make soldiers feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

"What kind of embassy is it when everybody lives inside and it's blast-proof, and people are running around with helmets and crouching behind sandbags?" "We assume there will be a significant, enduring U.S. presence in Iraq," Satterfield said.

No shit. Nothing says progress like a half a billion dollar new bomb target.

In case you're wondering, we have 612 days left until Bush leaves office.