You’ve got to read this description of the new American embassy under construction in Bagdad (the title: “The Colossus of Bagdad”).  This monstrous construction project is unbelievably arrogant and excessive.  It will be the largest embassy on the planet.

As an outpost, this vast compound reeks of one thing: imperial impunity. It was never meant to be an embassy from a democracy that had liberated an oppressed land. From the first thought, the first sketch, it was to be the sort of imperial control center suitable for the planet’s sole “hyperpower,” dropped into the middle of the oil heartlands of the globe. It was to be Washington’s dream and Kansas City’s idea of a palace fit for an embattled American proconsul—or a khan.

This is terrific writing characteristic of TomPaine.com.  But this is not just a story about a construction project.  Rather, it is a story of the corrupt leaders of our nation.  This story makes me acutely embarrassed to be an American.  No, I don’t want to leave the U.S.  I want to change it.