NEO Starts In Baghdad - By Walrus

The New York Times is reporting the begining of a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) from the Baghdad embassy, as Col. Lang recommended some days ago.

 

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"The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to temporarily evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week and to increase security at the embassy in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.

The embassy, a beige fortress on the banks of the Tigris River within the heavily-secured Green Zone, where Iraqi government buildings are also located, has the largest staff of any United States Embassy.

The exact number of people being evacuated was not clear Sunday. The embassy would remain open, according to a statement from the department’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki,and many of its approximately 5,500 staff members would stay in Baghdad. 

Many staff members who are leaving — the statement called it “relocating” — will be flown to Amman, Jordan, where they will continue their work at the embassy there, the statement said. Others will be shifted from Baghdad to consulates here in Erbil, in the northern Kurdish region, and in Basra, in the south, which are not now under threat by the militants."  NY Timea

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Approximately 5,500 staff, possibly with some dependents. I would say that is about 20 B747 loads by way of comparison. This going to need to be done very carefully to avoid turning into a rout.

However I think there may be another issue. What about all the Iraqi staff, members of the Maliki Government and their families? Are we silly enough to leave behind card indexes, or perhaps a USB key with lists of our helpers

As I said years ago, the only thing for sure out of the Iraq and Afghan wars will be a chain of themed Iraqi  and of course Afghan restaurants ( Maliki's place? Goats 'R us? Karzai's?).  Walrus

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/world/middleeast/embassy.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

 

Comments

[Mike Rush]

Col. Lang,

Karzai was a waiter, years ago, in Chicago. Of course he would expect exorbitant tips this around.

[turcopolier]

Mike Rush
Ho Chi Minh was a waiter in Paris in the 20s pl

[John]

And tell me again how many local Vietnamese staff and their families we abandoned during the fall of Saigon?

Déjà vu?

[Charlie Wilson]

Karzai's already own an upscale restaurant here in Cambridge, MA.

Walrus, is there a Pigs 'R Us restaurant near you?

[Babak Makkinejad]

Walrus:

I do not agree; both in Iraq and in Afghanistan I expect the nominal central government to continue to exist.

I think in Iraq there would be a restoration of government writ in Mosul and elsewhere; in Afghanistan I think regionalism with nominal allegiance to government in Kabul would continue.

[steve g]

Rode the inaugural opening of the light
rail between Mpls and St.Paul yesterday.
One stop, Western, is called the Mekong
apropos the many VN restaurants and shops.
Because of the three years plus construction
period there are many store fronts vacant.
Room for both Afghan and Iraqi themed busi-
nesses. Would there be a problem if one
is Shia and the other Sunni? Leave no
sectarian conflict behind. BTW in the late
seventies and early eighties VN vets named
that section the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Somewhere
Uncle might be smiling.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Was Ho Chi Minh, like Bashar al Assad, interested to have good relations with US?

[turcopolier]

babak

Yes, until we insisted on siding with the French against him. pl

[annamisseed]

A little off topic but, I'm hearing a lot (not here of course) about the "disintegration" of the Iraqi army and a certain inevitability that the rout will continue into Baghdad and the South.
Given the bad blood created by the Maliki administration and it's political disenfranchisement toward the Sunni population, wouldn't the army troops stationed in these largely Sunni cities know when push came to shove that they would find zero sympathy let alone support from the civilian population. That in effect they were remotely garrisoned in very hostile locations.
I find it hard to believe that anything similar could happen either in Baghdad or the Shiite cities in the South, and the territorial acquisition has already reached its limit.

[YT]

Col. sir,

This must be old for you but apparently he (Uncle Ho) was influenced by those protagonists in the Révolution française as well as those Monsieurs who signed the Déclaration d'indépendance des États-Unis.

Irony...