Why wasn't the "safe room" safe, allowing it to be breached (?) and filled with smoke?
Where were the security personnel? The Marines? The local security force?
Where were the smoke hoods, N-95 masks, or even gas masks?
What was the evacuation plan, if any?
Ambassador Stevens appears to have been working out of a plain house, not worthy of being called an Embassy or Consulate. The safe room wasn't safe and the evacuation "plan" so shoddy that Stevens became separated from his companions. Where was his security detail? If someone were to die in this attack, it should be security personnel and not the top guy. Everyone should have been focused on protecting him and, apparently, no one was.
Expecting an Ambassador to operate in such primitive conditions in a former combat zone, teeming with known extremists, is unconscionable and the work of amateurs. What could the Secretary of State have been thinking? So far, we've not seen anything that remotely resembles even basic security procedures. Even Ambassador Stevens should have taken some precautions to protect his staff. How many other American diplomats are sitting in targets so "soft" they could be breached with BB guns and water balloons?
This carnage is appalling and the perpetrators need to be neutralized; and fast! The fact is they did their job and the American government failed to protect its own is a time of crisis through planning, training and protective security. This incident isn't just about losing a fine diplomat, it's about the image of the United States as weak, ineffective and governed by amateurs who can't anticipate and plan; who just react.
It's clearly time to appoint a Secretary of State who does more than attend meetings. Her boss must share in the shame of this tragedy as well. Perhaps it is time to replace our current government with a whole new set of amateurs. After all, they could do no worse.
