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.
When I was working at the U.S. Interest Section in Baghdad in 1983, we were in the old embassy building. There were NO MSG. When we secured the building at 1830, there were no humans left in the building. A large number of alarms were activated and our outer perimeter was guarded by Iraqi infantry. We were always shocked to find out when we opened up at 0730 that we hadn’t been penetrated. At the time we were under the aegis of the Belgians. The Belgian flag flew over the mission.
Two or Three days a week my son pulled the day shift at the front desk greeting the public who would come into the embassy. he was behind glass, but he had his loaded side arm.