I would ad that the full complement of Marines varies from Embassy to Embassy. In 2002 they doubled the number in Paki from 11 to 22.
Yesterday someone posted: no Marines in consulate in Libya because it was not an embassy. Other places I have read they had 8 marines responding to the incident.
When my son was an MSG in Jordan, they had live rounds even though the local government was very cooperative. The Jordanians used to call and tell the details of demonstrations and how long they would let it go until the media had their photos and the locals broke it up.
Consulates can have MSGs and most do. This was supposed to be an interim facility. It was secured by lock and key. No bulletproof glass, not even coated with mylar.
If you want to make your blood boil read this WP story about the attack on the consulate.
"Benghazi residents said the consulate never had a major security presence, and lawmakers in Washington described it as a “temporary” facility that did not meet the latest State Department security requirements and was scheduled to be replaced. U.S. military officials said it was not guarded by U.S. Marines, as are most embassies and many consulates."
"There had been signs of a threat earlier. On June 5, a bomb exploded outside the gates of the consulate in the first attack on an American facility since the fall of Gaddafi. No one was injured."
"A jihadist group calling itself “Brigades of Imprisoned Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman” claimed responsibility, according to the Site monitoring service. The group posted a message on jihadist forums saying the attack was a response to the drone strike that killed Libi in Pakistan on June 4. The group is named after the blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing."
"On June 10, two British bodyguards were injured in an attack in Benghazi on a convoy carrying the British ambassador. The assailants used rocket-propelled grenades to attack the convoy as it was pulling out of the British Consulate.
"Militants also have been blamed for attacks on the Tunisian Consulate in Benghazi and on the International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya."
If we had a real MSM in this country, the question would be, "Why did we put Americans at risk in such an unprotected facility given the conditions in Libya and previous recent attacks in Benghazi against the consulate and British interests. This needs to be investigated immediately.
I agree with you. I find it very hard to believe that our MSGs are not armed with live rounds. I doubt the USMC would agree to send them into harm's way without some means of self-defense. That is what they are trained for.