Nation & World

BAGHDAD — Less than two months after U.S. troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining U.S. influence in the country.

Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that Ambassador James Jeffrey and other senior State Department officials are reconsidering the size and scope of the embassy, where the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors.

The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion.

But the Americans have been frustrated by Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.

After the U.S. troops departed in December, life became more difficult for the thousands of diplomats and contractors left behind. Convoys of food that were previously escorted by the U.S. military from Kuwait were delayed at border crossings as Iraqis demanded documentation that the Americans were unaccustomed to providing.

Within days, the salad bar at the embassy dining hall ran low. Sometimes there was no sugar or Splenda for coffee. On chicken-wing night, wings were rationed at six per person. Over the holidays, housing units were stocked with Meals Ready to Eat (MRE), the prepared food for soldiers in the field.

At every turn, it seems, the Iraqi government has interfered with the activities of the diplomatic mission, one the Iraqis never asked for or agreed upon. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office — and sometimes even the prime minister himself — now must approve visas for all Americans, resulting in lengthy delays. U.S. diplomats have had trouble setting up meetings with Iraqi officials.

Two murky episodes — one involving four armed Americans on the streets of Baghdad that Iraqi officials believe were Central Intelligence Agency operatives and another when a U.S. helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing because of a mechanical failure on the outskirts of the capital on the banks of the Tigris River — have reinforced widely held suspicions here that the U.S. has not relinquished its military role.

The current configuration of the embassy is actually smaller than the original plans that were drawn up at a time when officials believed a residual U.S. military presence would remain in Iraq beyond 2011. For instance, officials once planned for a 700-person consulate in the northern city of Mosul, but that was scrapped for budgetary reasons.

Kenneth Pollack, of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution described as unrealistic the State Department's belief that it could handle many of the tasks previously performed by the military, such as monitoring security in northern areas disputed by Arabs and Kurds, where checkpoints are jointly manned by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, and visiting projects overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The size of the embassy staff is even more remarkable when compared with other countries. Turkey, for instance, which is Iraq's largest trading partner and wields more economic influence here than the United States, employs roughly 55 people at its embassy, and the number of actual diplomats is in the single digits.

The problems with the supply convoys, as well as a wide crackdown on security contractors that included detentions and the confiscation of documents, computers and weapons, prompted the embassy to post a notice on its website.

It warns Americans working here that "the government of Iraq is strictly enforcing immigration and customs procedures, to include visas and stamps for entry and exit, vehicle registration and authorizations for weapons, convoys, logistics and other matters."

The considerations to reduce the number of embassy personnel, U.S. officials here said, reflects a belief that a quieter and humbler diplomatic presence could actually result in greater leverage over Iraqi affairs, particularly in mediating a political crisis that flared just as the troops were leaving.

Having fewer burly, bearded and tattooed security men — who are currently the face of America to many Iraqis and evoke memories of horrible abuses — could help build trust with Iraqis, these officials believe.