Posted on 09/15/2012 4:11:12 PM PDT by tobyhill
Sudan has rejected an offer by the United States to send Marines to increase security at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, amid protesters and police clashing.
The announcement Saturday follows the United States saying it was sending Marines to Sudan to bolster security at the embassy, where Sudanese police reportedly fired on protestors trying to scale the compound walls.
“Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps,'' Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told the state news agency SUNA, which Reuters reported Saturday.
As a result, the deployment has been delayed and possibly curtailed, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to disclose details on the troop movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Just send in the Marines! What is wrong with those people? We don’t ask whom to send to our own embassies, we JUST DO IT.
Actually, this goes back a long way. Embassies may only use the “Marines” of their country as military guards. Not soldiers or sailors. And the number of those Marines is rigidly fixed by treaty, and can only be augmented with permission of the host nation.
This treaty is so rust proof that countries that don’t even have Marines have to designate some of their soldiers as Marines and give them distinctive uniforms different from their army or navy, solely to use them as embassy guards.
Typically, that is why US Marines have such a strict rotation for embassy duty. If a new one arrives, an old one must leave.
I think we get the concept of having to ask. The incredulity is that despite all the aid we supply to these thugs, Obama appears to have zero leverage over them. That’s the point here.
Did you see the police beating back the mob? I saw a single shot that showed an officer in riot gear bash someone with a club then begin to mill around uselessly while the mob tore down a fence and one attempted to smash 10 inch thick windows with his bug-roasting stick.
You can tell when the police are secretly on the side of the mob. As much as I detest Australia’s spineless approach to the Islamization of their country, it was good to see security sicking dogs on these crazies and spraying their faces with pepper. That’s how you do it.
It was my experience that the host country sets the number of embassy staff is allowed. In most countries, the foreign ministries are reasonable and give us carte Blanche to staff our missions. In some countries, the host ministry says OK, you can have 50 billets. It’s up to the ambassador to decide who fills what billet. Usually the MSGs are included in that billet count.
I do not believe that Sudan has anything of material value that we can’t live without.
I do not care one whit about the health or welfare of any citizen of the Sudan.
I do not care for the health or welfare of any person but those of my house right now. Until we can take care of our own I have no regard for any others whatsoever. None.
After some digging, I can’t find a single notable thing we trade with Sudan.
Export 2011
14.7 million
Import 2011
6.2 million
It’s a barren wasteland full of Jihadists. We won’t miss them.
We have got to stop throwing away money on people who hate us! It’s incredibly stoopid! My policy for the garbagistan nations would be: We’re outa here. No more money. And if anything, ANYTHING,, comes from your country that damages us or our interests, you have 24 hours to get your citizens out of your cities. Because in 24 hours, you will have no more cities, no gas or electric works, no bridges, no railroads, etc., etc.. It’s past time to stomp on these spiders. < And that period is serious! It’s the only thing these inbred savages will understand!
“I do not believe that Sudan has anything of material value that we can’t live without.”
Material, no. However, they are strongly Islamist, and centrally located, where it would be very good to get an intelligence heads up what they were about.
For example, Sudan might suddenly get a big influx of Egyptians if its regime goes belly up. Likewise it can make trouble for Christian South Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and the Red Sea, which is a strategic sea lane.
Bottom line: Embassies do a lot more than diplomacy. They are not terribly expensive compared to what we might get from them.
And the vital information our embassy in Libya was able to learn that protected it was??
“For example, Sudan might suddenly get a big influx of Egyptians if its regime goes belly up. Likewise it can make trouble for Christian South Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and the Red Sea, which is a strategic sea lane.”
This I understand but we are going to do what about protecting South Sudan and Libya is? As for the Red Sea, Egypt is a pretty big country all along one side and Yemen isn’t what I would call an enthusiastic U.S. Ally... they pretty much guard the other end of the Red Sea.
I stand by my view that Sudan isn’t terribly material to us.
The US is very interested in a region of Africa called the Maghreb. This is because al-Qaeda is putting a lot of time, effort, money and resources into moving to this multinational region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb
While Sudan isn’t in the Maghreb proper, it is the gateway to the Maghreb via eastern Africa. And since the US has discreetly deployed lots of elite forces to help keep the Maghreb clean, they probably get a lot of command and control from the US embassy in Sudan.
So much of what the US does in Africa is discreet, but we do like to “keep our irons in the fire”.
I watched it live on Al Jazeera TV. We get it here over the airwaves in DC. They have the best coverage of ME events.
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