Isn’t an attack on an Ambassador the same as an attack on the President, the one being the direct personal representative of the other?
Isn’t an attack on an Embassy the same as an attack on the country?
Aren’t both acts of war?
What, then, is to be done?
More “Smart Diplomacy” ?
What is to be done? It doesn’t appear at this point that we have cause against the Libyan government. Yes, it apparently took five hours for their security forces to show up. But that’s hard to lay at the feet of the “central” government. We’ll see how much cooperation we get going forward with the investigation. But I think the investigation will only reveal the obvious: al-Qaeda. So we go on killing them where we find them, including Libya.
And maybe, the FAST outfits need to more frequently be deployed to the bad places, preemptively, rather than waiting in Spain. Or, maybe just more “regular” Marines. Don’t think it would have taken many Marines for this to have had a very different outcome.
Less than 2-cents.
For those responsible for killing the Ambassador,
Again, to reiterate,
Find every single one responsible and visit an agonizingly slow, excruciating painful, cerrtain death upon them.
And, make it public. There’s nothing like a hanging in the town square to remind everyone that there are consequences. It’s worked for mellenia and I’m pretty certain it still works.
US Embassies should be hard(er) targets and the walls around them should be for the protection of the mobs.
First of all, we should have no embassies in muslim countries. Second, if we do keep them air support should be readily available and should be used to defend them.
The “real” answer to the issue is one nobody wants to discuss publicly.
JustAl, so we need to station a carrier or build an air base next to every embassy? Hardly practical.
So you missed the first sentence? If you can’t protect them, don’t have them there.
There’s a disturbing report on CBS that the Marine Security Guards were not co-located with the Ambassador. Worse, the local Libyan security guards apparently guided the mob to the Ambassador’s location. What was the ROE for our troops? I agree that building a base near each embassy is not a workable solution. However, beefing up our FAST capabilities and creating additional “bases” for them is something worth looking into.
Unfortunately, this President has no concept of what it means to be attacked. Also, his representatives (CJCS and official spokesfolks) have called for Americans to apologize for exercising their First Amendment rights. Granted, he may have authorized CIA/FBI/JSOC to work on a direct response, but that would (hopefully) be kept out of the press. For this latter option, I’m not optimistic.
Interesting take on this seal – that they chose to focus on his part of that anti prostelytizing group.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/09/13/glen-doherty-libya-attack_n_1880566.html
Interesting in that the embassy attack was driven by religion.
This is an attack by our media on religion, and I mean our religious practices in the service. I personally don’t understand mrff’s mission. Anyone who’s had someone repeatedly try to violently kill them believes in some kind of god or the other – these guys must be fearless supermen.
I guess I don’t understand why certain embassies are not built like forts or prisons with an outer wall, a kill zone, and an inner wall.
The comcept your referring to is “defense in depth”. There are a lot that are – this one was not apparently.
Like VFRMarine, I’m also suprised not to hear of the MSG’s in the fight – they would have certainly scrambled the react force much earlier – they may have been evacing staff and families.
I’m typing with my thumbs today so please excuse all the typos
Very likely the Embassy was a rented building as we didn’t have a diplomatic presence in Libya.
Where were the MSG?
Given the optempo of bombings, killings, protests and such, did the security forces AND intelligence analysts became complacent?
Why was an ambassador (a career diplomat, not the run-of-the-mill multi-millionaire who gives gobs of cash to whichever candidate for POTUS is favored) in such an unsettled area, instead of on the periphery?
Thinking the Iranians were behind the whole operation, from Tunisia to Pakistan (and likely Indonesia as well).
We don’t have an MSG det anywhere in Libya, not the embassy nor the consulate in Benzhazi. Dept of State has 220+ overseas posts, embassies and consulates. We have MSG dets at less than 160. Part of the Ambo’s responsibilities is to visit the consulates located in his country. Google “MCESG” and read what’s on their website.
Word.
Did better than Google, but thank you for the suggestion! Going to be a long investigation, lasting at least until after the election.
The bodies were returned, via Andrews, so DoS could pay respects.
RIP :’(
What is to be done? General Dempsey will tell us not to anger the Muslims. After all, “desecrating” a religion in the exercise of free speech is wrong. Unless it is a Crucifix in a jar of urine, or an image of the Madonna with excrement flung on it. THEN, it is valuable free expression, right, Hillary?
http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/u.s._envoy_to_libya_killed_over_anti_muslim_movie_by_american_israeli_filmm