Yep.

Juan Cole…

The US embassy in Iraq should be closed. It is not safe for the personnel there. Some sort of rump mission of hardy volunteers could be maintained. But kidnapping our most capable diplomats and putting them in front of a fire squad is morally wrong and is administratively stupid, since many of these intrepid individuals will simply resign. (You cannot easily get good life insurance that covers death from war, and most State spouses cannot have careers because of the two-year rotations to various foreign capitals, and their families are in danger of being reduced to dire poverty if they are killed).

Whatever our relationship to Iraq may be, or may become, 'diplomatic' isn't a word that immediately comes to mind. Even before the Bushco™ move to press reluctant diplomats into service was announced, it's clear that the embassy in Iraq was exceptional. Not only is it planned to be monumental in scale, but there's no expectation that it will be secure, or that the host government will be able to meet its security responsibilities. While Bill Richardson may offer the most comprehensive withdrawal plan, even he concedes the need to leave behind a thousand or so Marines to secure the embassy. That's not, as he's implied, routine duty for Marine Corps embassy guards. Marines are typically dispatched in small units (Cairo is the world's largest detachment, totaling 30 Marines) to handle internal security matters. Countries with whom we enjoy diplomatic relations provide perimeter security for our embassies, just as we do for theirs. If it takes a thousand Marines to do the job, we don't have an embassy, we have a fortress.

Shut it down.