Maybe the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Could Have Used a Bit More Protection

Ambassador Chris StevensUpon hearing that that the U.S. consulate in
Benghazi had been stormed and Ambassador Chris
Stevens
and three embassy staffers killed, my wife, a normally
restrained and sensible woman, immediately demanded that the United
States bomb Libya. In response to my protests that we don’t know
who the hell to bomb, she “moderated” her preferred response to a
massive invasion of the country, before eventually calming down. I
suspect that I’m not the only person dealing with domestic demands
for atrocities today, which leaves me wondering who left a U.S.
ambassador in a chaotic, post-revolutionary country protected by a
security screen too thin to protect him from a pissed-off mob.

I’m not the only person wondering this. According to
CBS News
:

According to [Libyan Interior Ministry official Wanis]
al-Sharef, the angry mob stormed the consulate after the U.S.
troops who responded fired rounds into the air to try and disperse
the crowd. Al-Sharef said there had been threats that Islamic
militants might try to take revenge for the death of al Qaeda’s No.
2 commander Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed in a U.S. drone
strike in Pakistan in June, and he said the U.S. consulate should
have been better protected.

As much as I’m not a fan of military adventurism, it seems to me
that the old cliche about a good defense being the best offense* is
excellent advice — certainly better than what my wife and many
other Americans are offering today, When seemingly humiliated
officials of a shaky government that is, unsurprisingly, unable to
protect your diplomatic representatives suggests that you probably
should have done more to prepare for unpleasantness, it’s likely
that they’re uttering kernels of truth.

By contrast to the Benghazi compound, the U.S. embassy in Cairo,
which also
came under attack
with a better outcome, is described as a
“fortress-like U.S. mission.” Granted, the U.S. embassy to Libya is
in Tripoli and the Benghazi consulate is a lesser facility, but
Libya strikes me as the sort of place where any American
presence should be “fortress-like.”

A little more preparation, and maybe we wouldn’t have to worry
about what constitutes an appropriate response to the violence in
Benghazi.

*Yeah, I kind of butchered the old saying. How about, “an
ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure”?