Although the debate over the extent to which the United States will exert influence in Iraq following President Bush’s departure continues to rage, the construction of a massive U.S. embassy in Baghdad seems to indicate that, internally at least, the government has made up its mind. The complex, which sits upon a heavily-fortified 104 acres in the locked-down Green Zone of Baghdad, is comparable in size to Vatican City. Although the embassy - by far the largest and most heavily staffed of any U.S. foreign missions - is not entirely complete, it has assumed day-to-day operations.

It’s final price tag remains unknown, although credible estimates range from roughly $600 million to nearly $1 billion.

Even before Secretary of State Condoleeza’s Rice request for additional funding, the so-called “city within a city” featured more than 21 buildings, a cinema, a fire station, schools, restaurants, and, of course, a perimeter of concrete blast walls, 15-feet thick. Already operating at the limits of its capacity, the embassy is equipped with 619 blast-proof apartments to accomodate State Department workers, foreign officials, military personnel and congressional visitors.

Upon final completion, the new complex is expected to be the largest embassy in the world. Altogether, the U.S. compound comprises the area of roughly 80 football fields.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Michael Rubin, a national security analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. Rubin visits Baghdad frequently and believes that such a large embassy is a waste of precious resources. “If you have people who serve in that embassy but never step outside,” he said, “they might as well go back and work from Washington.” On May 19, all outdoor congregation was prohibited “due to the threat of indirect fire against the embassy compound,” according to a memo obtained from the U.S. Mission in Iraq by the Washington Post.

According to USA Today, the “massive new embassy, being built on the banks of the Tigris River, is designed to be entirely self-sufficient and won’t be dependent on Iraq’s unreliable utilities.” The embassy features its own water treatment plant along with its own sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure.

Despite the sensitivity of the project, the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is being built by neither Americans nor Iraqis. As the Saudi Arabia-based Arab News reports, “work for the embassy was quietly awarded last summer to a controversial Kuwait-based construction firm, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting (FKTC). FKTC has been accused of exploiting employees and coercing low-paid laborers to work in Iraq.”

Arab News also reports that at least one-award winning company offered to build the embassy for “$60 or $70 million less than FKTC.” Many of the competing contractors are suggesting that the United States government rewarded FKTC with the contact as a means of thanking Kuwait for sponsoring the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

“It was political,” said a contractor who asked not to be identified.

The U.S. government isn’t giving away any hints, either.

“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” said Roberta Rossi, embassy spokeswoman.

Yet the government thus far seems unable to control public sentiment surrounding the project in Iraq, where some locals have taken to calling the embassy “George W’s Palace.”

“The presence of a massive U.S. embassy - by far the largest in the world - co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government,” said a statement issued by the International Crisis Group, “is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country.”