After signing a 10-year lease and spending more than $80 million on a site envisioned as the United States’ diplomatic hub in northern Afghanistan, American officials say they have abandoned their plans, deeming the location for the proposed compound too dangerous.Apparently a bunch of normal State Department security rules were waived in order to build this now-to-be abandoned consulate, which is all-too-vulnerable to car bombs. The article lays the blame on the late Richard Holbrooke, who was appointed by our current president to head up diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan, and who seemed to be in a rush to make a good impression on the locals.
It isn't smart diplomacy to build
where you can easily be killed.
4 comments:
Throw an $800,000 event in Las Vegas, however, and heads will roll.
I'm not sure how Las Vegas got such a political bad rap. Seemed like a great place to have meetings and events. Better than Afghanistan, for sure!
As far as I could tell, the press completely missed this angle: a couple years ago, NV politicians berated Obama for telling people not to "blow money in Vegas."
The GSA convention you could reasonably assume was the administration's peacemaking effort.
That would make sense. Ouch. That blew up.
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