“I am old enough to remember when Lebanon was the most affluent (and most culturally liberal) no-oil country in the Middle East.”
I can attest to that. I was in Beirut in June of 1968 and was just amazed at how modern the city was. Full of life, tourism, business and shopping. I believe it was called the Paris of the Middle East. A memorable experience was in my hotel, verrry nice, and watching “I Dream Of Jeannie” with English subtitles. It was a stopover enroute to Ethiopia, where I spent the next six months.
Back to the embassy subject - yes, this is a very expensive and large target. Considering the size, I wonder if there is some special intelligence or military value above what is usually at an embassy?
See my post above this.
If it were national security, we'd be throwing money at Oman to build up the region just south of Hormuz, seeing how we're largely abandoning our interests in UAE and Bahrain.
Hunter wants a whorehouse. Can't really blame the location.