US Embassy In Syria Shut Down

If you need further proof there's a genuine civil war going on in Syria right now, the State Department has just provided it by closing the U.S. embassy in Damascus. Here's the straight dope courtesy of ABC News and Yahoo!...

Quote :

The United States has whisked its remaining diplomats out of Syria and suspended operations at its embassy in Damascus as violence there continues to increase, U.S. officials told ABC News.

The skeletal staff, including Ambassador Robert Ford, departed quietly despite in some cases being denied exit visas by Syrian authorities, the officials said.

"The recent surge in violence, including bombings in Damascus on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6, has raised serious concerns that our Embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today. "We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately."

Simply put, Secretary of State Clinton doesn't want to take a chance on one of her diplomats getting "accidentally" shot or blown up by Bashir Assad's goons.

Huh.

I thought it had been shut down LONG ago.

1) The snippet isn't L enough to be TL;DR
2) It's "Clinton".

1.) It was L enough for me.
2.) "Clinton" isn't clear enough. Hilary, strangely, is. Secretary of State Clinton (or simply, The Secretary of State) is clear enough while at the same time showing enough respect to keep you from going on a tirade about the Patriarchy.