OUR SPENDTHRIFT GOVERNMENT

The bloated State Departemnt is not often included in the list of government wasteful spending. Would it surprise you to know that there are over 190 embassies spread around the world ? These are large, fancy, fortress like buildings. (The new Iraqi embassy is costing$1,000,000,ooo.00. That's one billion)

Embassy staffs are large. I have been told , for example, that the Mexico City staff is over 400. London, Paris, Berlin and other major capitals are similarly staffed.

Each embassy has an ambassador. This almost always turns out to be a big contributor to the party of the president in power,or sometimes just friends of POTUS. Ambassadorships are well paid and very prestigious positions with many percs. They must live in the finest houses with enormous staffs as befits their importance. Their principal function is to throw lavish parties for the local bigwigs. His consular staff does what little work needs to be done.

The consulates are spread about in large numbers, maybe 5 or 6 in important counties. Figures are hard to come by but a good guess would be about 600. Each is like a mini embassy. Their function is to look after the interests of American citizens.
My personal experience with the consuls varied from terrible to unbelievably excellent.

Ambassadors to countries are only part of the picture. We also have ambassadors to international organizations and ambassadors at large (?). The Department of State
in DC has a huge staff needed just to keep track of all th ambassadors and consuls

Here is a partial list of US embassies to countries I have never heard of----Tuvali, Tonga, South Ossetia. Seychelle, Sao Tome y Principe, Nauru, Maritius, Kimbali, Djibouti, Comoros, Cape Verde, Benin.

How many of these you can locate?