Academic

?SMART DIPLOMACY:? State Dept. Chartered Boat Too Small To Evacuate Citizens Stranded In Libya. ?T?

By Glenn Reynolds

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” State Dept. Chartered Boat Too Small To Evacuate Citizens Stranded In Libya. “The U.S. needed to charter a bigger boat like the Greeks’.”

So our State Department isn’t up to Greek civil-service standards? . . .

UPDATE: Reader Anthony Williams isn’t so sure:

Regarding that rescue boat: I?ve not been a fan of our State Department either, but there?s a lot less fire to that story than might appear. The boat was big enough to carry the Americans (all 167) of them, plus various other foreign nationals. The ?too small? comment was made by the editor of a shipping magazine. He wondered why the ship did not leave Tripoli earlier and speculated that the captain didn?t think it could handle the rough seas. But his comment also makes it sound like the Maria Dolores should have been able to handle the seas, even if they were rough (and thus the captain was being overly cautious). Bottom line is, he doesn?t know.

There?s not enough information to say that the State Department mishandled the evacuation; maybe they did, or maybe they made the best of a bad situation. Given the usual levels of government competence, I?m just happy that we got our people out safely.

Hmm. Well, I’d rather believe we’re not inept, so . . . .

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 25, 2011 (boomark / email).