Diplomats need more security

Kenneth Torp seems to think that what has been going on at the recent hearings in Washington, D.C., has been “seemingly endless second-guessing” about “presumptive security lapses in Benghazi,” [“Don’t turn U.S. embassies into bunkers,” Opinion, Feb. 10].

I would submit that there were security lapses, and they were not “presumptive” but real. What a disgrace!

Torp regales the readers with stories of what it was like to travel in Mali in 1972. All well and good, but this is not 1972 and he is setting up a straw man when he suggests that we now are in danger of further security restrictions, which make it more difficult for diplomats to do their job. Our diplomats asked for help before the Benghazi attack and did not get it. Then they asked for help during the attack and did not get it.

--Richard Prout, Seattle