Right now my take on this event would be that it is a symptom of a multi-generational mental disease acquired by those who advance in the State Department. As one example I would mention that they had the Soviets build a new embassy for us in 1979 in Moscow and then were surprised there were bugs in every room. Another prominent example was Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson closing down in 1929 Herbert Yardley’s code breaking “Black Chamber” and asserting that ”gentlemen do not read other gentlemen’s mail”.
By the way, only our State Department could decide they don’t need U.S. Marine security in Baghdad. Notice they depend on guards from Uganda. Shades of Benghazi here.
Currently my opinion is that these people always need a short leash and would be welcome at the Mad Hatter’s table.
Besides this article, I included a couple other links. I would suggest subscribing to World Magazine just to read her Middle East contributions.
That’ll be a nice Caliphate headquarters for ISIS, courtesy of the taxpayers.
Uganda Guards? I thought United States Marines guarded embassies?
During my illustrious career, I had the opportunity to serve at several U.S. Missions without U S Marine Security Guards. The first was in Djibouti in 1982. We were told that the French Military, including the Legionnaires, would provide our security. In 1983, I worked at the United States Interests Section in Baghdad; the Belgian, our protecting power, would save us.Then in 1984, I worked at the Embassy in N’Djamena, Chad. There too, the French Army would go to bat for us. My final shot at Africa was in Mbabane, Swaziland. Not much danger there. In the unprotected missions, communications personnel like myself were usually ex military and were qualified on the M16 and several handguns. In later years we used to tel the Marines that we got sent to these places to make sure that it was safe enough to deploy MSG Personnel there. J/K, Devil Dogs.