Things are going very well in Iraq. It all depends on your perspective. The new U.S. Embassy is about half complete, right on schedule for 2007.

This amazing compound, a modern re-creation of a medieval City State, is being constructed in plain sight, yet hardly anyone is talking about it.

Some of the features of this world wonder are said to include totally self-sufficient resources to survive no matter if an all-out war is raging outside its gates. It has it's own water wells, electrical generators (probably gas turbines fueled from underground), a battalion-sized quick reaction force, and it is able to withstand a full-on siege for months without re-supply.

The complex includes 21 buildings on 104 acres, larger by far than the whole Iraqi government's Baghdad infrastructure. In other words, our government IN Iraq takes up more space than the government OF Iraq.

To put it in perspective, the U.S. Fortress Baghdad's 104 acres is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the acreage of Washington’s National Mall. It's not only the largest embassy in the world, it is unique and unprecedented in nearly every way.

It might well be described as a Vatican-like state-within-a-state. According to MSNBC, Iraq’s interim government transferred the land to U.S. ownership in October 2004, under an agreement whose terms were not disclosed.

Naturally, as with nearly everything the Bush administration does, it's all "undisclosed." We don't need to know its final cost (well over $1 billion) and please don't even ask who the building contractors are because they ain't gonna tell you!

But you can guess, right? They say it's "five American companies."

In case you are worried that our diplomats, security forces, spooks and wheeler/dealers are going to suffer the hardships of living in concrete bunkers, MSNBC reports that "Besides two major diplomatic office buildings, homes for the ambassador and his deputy, and the apartment buildings for staff, the compound will offer a swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation building."

A bubble city for our bubble boy president to fly in and out of to serve the occasional turkey dinner and give victory speeches.

Bottom Line Salon Readers:

Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. We ain't leaving Iraq in your lifetime. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

"take not only with a grain of salt but also with a few drops of Tabasco sauce"

There are dozens of very fine domestic hot sauces in Mexico. But the Tabasco brand is Louisiana all the way.

Jeez, how can I trust anything this guy says when he don't know from hot sauce?

Dear Stupid Shit DD, here's how it works: If you don't care for something, don't read it. If you can draw a better strip, then draw it.

Can you believe this clown?

He hates TMW/TT and yet he's back here every Monday morning to read the strip and then cry about it. (Same guy, different name). I suppose he smacks himself with a rubber hose and complains about how much it hurts.

He's even so lame he complains about getting banned from TT's webblog? You'd think he would wear it like a badge of honor if he hated it so much.

It's too bad Salon doesn't block your ISP also, Stupid Shit. I'm sick of your whining all the time.

I love Tom Tommorow and This Modern World. It's the most enjoyable thing about Monday morning, along with my first cup of coffee. I love the brightly-colored 1940s matchbook art technique that TT-haters in their ignorance call clip art. To all you jerks out there who think it's easy, try it sometime. What's your style, crayons on toilet paper?

As for TT's humor, he can repeat the same riff over and over again if he likes and I never get bored with it. In fact, it's what I come to read his strip for.

So keep on delivering, TT. And Stupid Shit, as the old Frenchman once said, "If for one moment you don't like it, you have only to take zee door!"