DALE McFEATTERS Let the Iraqis have Saddam's palace

The Bush administration promised the interim Iraqi government real authority, and now its leaders are trying to exercise it.
This week, President Ghazi al-Yawer and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi made two requests: that the United States turn over Saddam Hussein and return the Republican Palace.
The White House has already agreed in principle to hand over the deposed dictator for trial by a special Iraqi tribunal once appropriate security measures are in place. President Bush quite reasonably said, "I want to make sure that ... Saddam Hussein stays in jail."
The administration did not respond directly to the other request, giving back Saddam's Republican Palace, a sprawling, domed marble pile on 41 acres of prime Baghdad real estate overlooking a bend in the Tigris River. It is now the headquarters of the U.S.-led occupation authority, and the administration is thinking of incorporating it into a planned, massive new U.S. Embassy.
Sovereignty
Said al-Yawer, "We asked that the Republican Palace be vacated at the first possible opportunity in order for us to use it as Iraqis, as a Republican Palace or as a museum. Whatever we do with it is a matter of Iraqi sovereignty. It is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty." He is right on both counts.
The administration should arrange to clear out of the palace and preferably not too long after the interim government formally assumes power June 30. The symbolism of U.S. government representatives holed up behind barbed wire in the official residence of the Iraqi head of state is dreadful. As the Iraqi people see it, a hated oppressor moved out and an increasingly hated conqueror moved in.
The coalition must inevitably lower its profile as power is handed over to the Iraqis and vacating this symbol of sovereignty would be a good place to start. And while U.S. planners are at it, they should start scaling back the size and staffing of the planned embassy.
For the United States to have its largest embassy in the world's 44th largest country is also a dreadful idea.
Scripps Howard News Service