baghdad embassy or dublin castle?

the usa is building the biggest embassy in the world in baghdad. it is increasingly unclear what diplomatic or ambassardorial functions will take place in a country which this week saw (1) signs that the iraqi parliament was becoming irrelevant to any day-to-day activities on the ground; (2) a new high in civilian contractor/mercenary deaths; (3) steady numbers of journalists killed or abducted in iraq; and (4) grim assessments from the us military.

• The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will be the world's largest and most expensive foreign mission, though it may not be large enough or secure enough to cope with the chaos in Iraq....
• 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....
• 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.
• The complex quickly could become a white elephant if the U.S. scales back its presence and ambitions in Iraq. Although the U.S. probably will have forces in Iraq for years to come, it is not clear how much of the traditional work of diplomacy can proceed amid the violence and what the future holds for Iraq's government.
• "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.
• "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?" ("U.S. Embassy in Iraq to Be Biggest Ever", by ANNE GEARAN | AP | May 19, 2007)

i note in passing that the large, fortified complex that dominated 20th-century dublin was dublin castle, the site of british rule in ireland and the headquarters of the lord lieutenant. a quick view of the movie Michael Collins will show you that all the activity in dublin castle was useless without links to the populace (intelligence, rumors, etc.) which Mr. Collins and the I.R.A. quietly and ruthlessly severed. i am sure that the situation behind the blast-proof walls in baghdad is much different, however, because the policy makers study history. or not?