Americans in Serbia Urged to Lock Selves in Cellar

In the wake of the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, the State Department has told American citizens in Serbia to high-tail it to the basement and break out the canned provisions. In a bulletin published today, the State Department warned businesses and organizations with U.S. affiliations in Serbia that they "may serve as focal points for additional demonstrations." Translation: "You are on the hit list." Embassy personnel in particular are told to "standfast in their residences and avoid movement." Americans in general are advised to avoid large crowds, maintain a low profile, and "review their personal protective measures."

My question: At what point did we drop the protective measures? An embassy is the emissary nation's sovereign territory abroad. An embassy is sacrosanct. It must not be invaded nor assaulted in any way. This is but one of the reasons God invented the Marine Corps, to protect our embassies from marauders. With a Marine guard in place, there is no reason a single Molotov cocktail should have hit the embassy in Belgrade, especially since the State Department had a heads-up that trouble was abrew.

It so happens that I once attended a small gathering at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Belgrade, and I can think of few more beautiful homes in which to hunker down. But even a palace becomes a prison if you have to stay indoors and avoid movement.

This dynamic of unrepelled attack on American embassies has, unfortunately, become all too common in recent years. We need to reverse the trend. Instead of dispatching only the "duck and cover" warnings to Americans overseas, we also need to issue another type of bulletin, this time to the world at large: America plans to resume protecting its missions abroad. Although we cannot also send troops into foreign lands to protect American businesspeople and tourists, we can send a clear "don't mess with us" message if we actually began to guard our own sovereign territory abroad.