Warning to Americans: Be Afraid, Very Afraid 800px-US_Embassy_TehranJeffrey Goldberg, writing at Bloomberg media, is not pleased about the Administration’s decision to close Middle Eastern embassies and consulates for fear of an Al-Qaeda attack. While acknowledging the tough spot the State Department is in, Goldberg wonders if we could find a way to publicize future concerns without looking so totally freaked out. It doesn’t strike me as a wise idea to preemptively shutter 21 different American embassies across the Middle East and North Africa in response to NSA-collected terrorist chatter. What message does this post-Benghazi, “don’t say we didn’t tell you” move send to the citizens of the Middle East, who, it is our hope, understand the United States to be a powerful and fearless country dedicated to openness and to the defeat of fanaticism? We have already muddied any message of fearlessness by turning our embassies into bunkers. Now, we are admitting that these bunkers aren’t safe. What next? Virtual embassies on Facebook? Ambassadors who never leave Washington?
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 17:45:24 +0000