The embassy is going to remain open, however. This is, then, another equivocal half-measure from Obama. If Sunni jihadists enter Baghdad, Americans may end up wishing he had evacuated the embassy entirely. As it is, he is hedging his bets. In any case, even a partial evacuation of this massively expensive embassy, which was supposed to be the beacon of the U.S. presence in the New, Prosperous, Stable and Democratic Middle East, is a poignant symbol instead of the failure of ill-conceived U.S. misadventure in Iraq, which was based on the assumption that Islam was a religion of peace — and on no knowledge of Sharia at all.
“U.S. to Evacuate Many Staff Members From Baghdad Embassy,” by Tim Arango and Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, June 15, 2014
ERBIL, Iraq — The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.
The embassy, a beige fortress on the banks of the Tigris River within the heavily-secured Green Zone, where Iraqi government buildings are also located, has the largest staff of any United States Embassy.
The exact number of people being evacuated was not clear Sunday. The embassy would remain open, a person familiar with the planning said, and much of its staff of about 5,500 would stay in Baghdad. The American government is expected to call the move a relocation, suggesting that it is a temporary precaution, the person said.
Many staff members who are leaving will be flown to Amman, Jordan, where they will continue their work at the embassy there. Others will be shifted from Baghdad to consulates here in Erbil, in the northern Kurdish region, and in Basra, in the south, which are not now under threat by the militants.
Other Americans in Iraq, particularly contractors working for companies that had been training the Iraqi military on weapons systems purchased from the United States, have already been evacuated from the country….
Budvarakbar says
Staff of 5500??? — any of you have any real idea of what is going on over there? — 5500????? 550 would be about 300 too dam many!
Jay Boo says
probably 5000 are locals who only show up once a week to pick up a check.
MoeFoe says
I’m surprised B. Hussein Obumwa doesn’t leave the lot there. He could be the first to recognize the caliphate. 5500 would seem to be a suitably impressive delegation from the ofal office
Wellington says
Just one more (hell, there have been so many) updated version of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic AFTER it hit that damn iceberg.
Until America and all the West quit pussy-footing around and treat with Islam and its deluded followers, including those silly and useless Muslims sometimes referred to as “moderates,” as inimical to the best that the West developed (e.g., liberty on a scale that no other civilization in history remotely ever came close to developing), frenetic scrambling such as this will continue ad nauseam, with many lives very likely lost in the process.
The key to ending this particular absurdity in man’s history (and it’s a giant absurdity to be sure) is to desist completely from looking upon Islam as something good. See it for the desultory, despicable, destructive religious ideology that it is and all else will fall into place and redound to the West’s benefit long term. Well, won’t get there with fools like Obama and Cameron leading the West, that’s for sure.
Jay Boo says
If anyone locates another anti-Muhammad film with two camels pulling an old lady apart, the White House is advising that a copy be sent to Pres. Obama immediately to be used as an excuse for abandoning the remaining US Embassy personnel should the embassy come under a terrorist attack.