Embassy Baghdad Under Fire

Yesterday, two mortar shells fell within 500 meters of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. They should be the shots heard ’round the world – or at least in official Washington.

After all, the mortars were presumably fired by Islamic State jihadists. These attacks are sure to be followed by more, and more accurate, ones aimed at America’s largest overseas diplomatic complex.

At that point, the thousands of U.S. personnel assigned to Embassy Baghdad may well be sitting ducks if, as seems likely, these jihadis are able to sever their sole remaining evacuation route: Baghdad International Airport.

It seems prudent now to begin doing two things: 1) beefing up our military’s ability to project power regionally, well beyond the pin-prick airstrikes seen to date and 2) decreasing the number of Americans at risk in Iraq.