So, the inevitable has occurred: After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the American diplomatic presence in Baghdad may be cut drastically, making the new $750 million embassy compound a monstrous white elephant.
The question is: What do we do with the 104-acre complex — the largest embassy on Earth, with 27 blast-proof buildings and housing for more than 1,000 employees?
Loop Fans can help!
Yes, it’s the Loop “Embassy for Sale” Contest, our first contest of 2012. Simply tell us what the United States should do with the compound and — this is a two-parter — name the new facility (or facilities, if that’s the plan).
Just go to wapo.st/
baghdadembassycontest and leave your submission in a comment. The top 10 entries will receive one of those coveted In the Loop T-shirts and mentions in this column.
But hurry! Entries must be submitted by midnight Feb. 17. In case of duplicates, the first in will win. (You may want to double-check that there’s an active e-mail address associated with your washingtonpost.com log-in. If we’re unable to contact a winner within three days, the prize will go to a runner-up.) Winners will be determined by an independent, distinguished and un-bribe-able panel of judges.
Here’s what you’ve got to work with: The ultra-secured complex, which opened in 2009, is on the banks of the Tigris River. It has swimming pools, basketball courts, tennis courts and other athletic facilities. The ambassador’s residence is 16,000 square feet, and the deputy’s cottage is a cozy 9,500 square feet.
The embassy, built when money was no object, has a 17,000-square-foot commissary and food-court building and its own water supply, power plant and waste-treatment facility, so it doesn’t have to rely on the Iraqis for essential services.
Think of the possibilities!
Nuclear groupies?
With his white hair and decidedly senatorial demeanor, Sen. Richard Lugar is not likely to be mistaken for a rock star.
But the Indiana Republican apparently enjoys a stature normally reserved for chart-toppers in Ukraine, where he is, as they say, huge.
Journalist John Shaw, who wrote the recent book “Richard G. Lugar: Statesman of the Senate,” says that while traveling with Lugar and former senator Sam Nunn in Eastern Europe, a young Ukrainian arms-control specialist told him that Lugar was a “total rock star” in her country because of his work on nonproliferation. Shaw then introduced the Lugar fan to the senator and the two chatted extensively about Ukrainian politics and diplomacy.
The woman later thanked Shaw, and — mixing musical metaphors — gushed that it was like meeting Michael Jackson .
The book also delves deeply into Lugar’s foreign policy work, and Shaw finds some criticism of the otherwise well-regarded senator — particularly on the Iraq war, which Lugar questioned but didn’t cross his party on. Lugar’s former colleague Chuck Hagel said he pleaded with Lugar to try to exert some influence with President George W. Bush, Shaw reports. And Vice President Biden, who served in the Senate for years with Lugar, also laments that he wasn’t more forceful. “I wish Dick would have punched back when he knew his team was wrong,” Biden says.
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