The U.S. closed its embassies and consulates in 21 Muslim countries on Saturday and Sunday, August 3rd and 4th. There are four lessons in this decision.
First, it says something about the countries in which these facilities are located. A nation’s embassy and consular offices are considered part of that country’s sovereign territory. Ambassadors and other official diplomatic personnel are supposed to be sacrosanct. A host nation is obligated to protect the property and officials attached to an embassy and/or consulate.
As we learned last year, in Cairo and especially in Benghazi, Middle-Eastern governments cannot, or will not, insure American territory’s and personnel’s safety. There have been other occasions — Tehran, 1989 comes to mind — when governments hostile to the U.S. permitted, and perhaps encouraged, mobs to assault U.S. facilities and officials.