A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo

CNN ^

[roses of sharon]

– [Update 8:38 p.m. Cairo, 1:38 p.m. ET] A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The small team of Marines, about a dozen according to one of the officials, are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST). The Marines are inside the embassy perimeter. Egyptian military and security forces continue to provide security outside the embassy, the officials said.

[don-o]

The picture is from 2009 training exercise.
Heavily armed is from media reports of current events.

[jakerobins]

HAHAHA....That’s what I was thinking...Too bad we don’t just let these Marines do their job and handle the situation...

[Oldpuppymax]

Undoubtedly with orders to SACRIFICE THEIR OWN LIVES rather than fire on Hussein’s fellow Muslims.

[Zhang Fei]

These marines are probably there to buy time necessary for the complete incineration of confidential embassy documents, if that becomes necessary. Because there’s no way they can hold back a mob backed by the Egyptian military with tanks and artillery.

[oh8eleven]

Since the shooting in AZ, there's an updated version ...

[FromLori]

National Guards too pray for our troops safety

National Guard to continue peacekeeping role
in Sinai

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/ss_egypt0082_01_31.asp

Groton Guard detachment is heading to Egypt

http://www.theday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110124/NWS09/301249955/-1/nws

[BerryDingle]

Pray for these guys. Personally I’d rather be in the thick of the fighting in Afghanistan than embassy duty in a riotous civilian powder keg like this with the thought of Iran 1979 in the back of my mind.

Try wall/fence duty for 12 hours in Liberia sometime.

[xone]

Wake Island might have made good theater, but is was a waste of good men.

Charles Lindbergh? I guess we should have pulled out of Hawaii, the Philippines? Oh wait we did fight that one. Not a cool slam on the Wake Island defenders. This isn't the same deal.

[reagan_fanatic]

God, why do I feel like we've time traveled back to 1979?

[Gay State Conservative]

If the 9th Century moslem knuckledraggers succeed in storming the Embassy,a la 1978,how many apologies to the moslem world will Hussein issue in the first 48 hours after the takeover?

[GonzoGOP]

Not a cool slam on the Wake Island defenders. This isn't the same deal.

I'm not slamming the Wake Island defenders. I'm slamming Fueling Frank Fletcher that didn't deliver their reinforcements or launch air strikes on the Japanese invasion fleet. Or FDR who put our troops out there without sufficient fortifications or troops to hold the island in the first place. Just because the Marines will fight heroically in hopeless situations doesn't mean we should put them into hopeless situations in the first place.

As for your other examples of Hawaii and the Philippines, we actually had a shot at holding those, so a fight was called for. We held Hawaii with a large army force and massive fortifications in addition to the naval assets there. Had MacArthur not botched the initial moves by getting his aircraft caught on the ground and trying to defend every inch of the islands, it is likely we could have held on to the Philippines much longer than we did. And after all any plan to hold the Philippines didn't count on the fleet being destroyed at Pearl Harbor so those plans had a reasonable chances of success. And there was no way to get the guys in the Philippines out after Pearl Harbor.

In the case of Wake there was time to either have reinforced the garrison sufficiently to hold the island or pull the guys there out. Fletcher with aircraft and additional troops already aboard steamed around in circles and did neither. That was a waste of some very brave men. And it as waste of good men that I object to.

[STD]

actually, they went in 4 days ago

[GeronL]

lol

[BerryDingle]

Why does that one guy sitting there...look like he’s 7 ft tall?

He's had over 8,000 previous jumps. Those are his arms on the floor, they are much longer than his legs now.

[BerryDingle]

actually, they went in 4 days ago

I'm betting CENTCOM gave this Obozo regime at least a 90 day heads up, that this crap was brewing.

[xone]

Or FDR who put our troops out there without sufficient fortifications or troops to hold the island in the first place. Just because the Marines will fight heroically in hopeless situations doesn't mean we should put them into hopeless situations in the first place.

The US was in no position to do that after Pearl Harbor. The Marines' and sailors' defense of Wake and their subsequent imprisonment wasn't theater. Easy to talk 60 years later.

Philippines, we actually had a shot at holding those, so a fight was called for.

We had no shot of holding the Phillipines at the time either for the same reason. By your reasoning they were 'wasted' as well; more 60 year hindsight.

hopeless situations in the first place.

Egypt's embassy isn't anywhere as hopeless as the Western Pacific was at the start of WWII. The Marines are doing the duty that is assigned to them, neither politics or theater is part of that duty.

[Free Vulcan]

No thanks! I appreciate anyone who has.

[Revolting cat!]

We oughta sue Egypt!

[GonzoGOP]

The US was in no position to do that after Pearl Harbor. The Marines' and sailors' defense of Wake and their subsequent imprisonment wasn't theater. Easy to talk 60 years later.

Going to my point about forethought. The Navy had been asking to fortify the island bases in the Pacific for several years before the war broke out. Instead FDR sent the Marines on Wake six obsolete 5" guns stripped from old battleships that had been scrapped. No proper gun directors, a handful of aircraft, insufficient anti-aircraft guns of an obsolete type, no concrete to build proper bunkers. They didn't even have enough barbed wire to close off the beaches. Worst of due to concerns about money the defenders were provided with no facilities for underground fuel or water storage. It wasn't a matter of doing that after Pearl Harbor it should have been done in 1938 when it became obvious that the Japanese were becoming aggressive.

Even after Pearl Harbor the Marines could still have been saved. After the defenders held off the first invasion attempt there was still time to send in reinforcements. They had lost their fuel supply due to it being stored above ground. And their meager supply of aircraft had been destroyed. Fletcher could have flown in more aircraft and rushed fast fleet oilers in with more aviation fuel. He had an entire Marine squadron on his carriers for just that purpose. Conversely the docks on Wake were still serviceable and Fletcher could have used one of his transports or a couple of destroyers to pull out the garrison. At a minimum he could have launched air strikes from his two carriers against the Japanese invasion forces. But he did neither and instead steamed in circles waiting for orders from politicians to cover his butt while men died. He left the guys on Wake Island in a hopeless situation that they need never have been in. At a minimum he should have evacuated the civilian contractors, all of whom were later executed by the Japanese.

And it isn't 60 years of hindsight. I didn't come up with the name Fueling Frank Fletcher. His own men did after his performance at Wake. Halsey pitched a fit over what we saw as his fellow carrier commanders inaction. That is well documented history not Monday morning quarterbacking.

[roses of sharon]

Good points.