They’d each seen men and women die before. But this was different. There was a savagery to the killings that neither of them had experienced before. Both men knew the history of the region, and the risks of living there. But neither had ever personally witnessed a suicide bombing. They’d never seen people vaporized. Nor had they ever expected to see Americans attacked like this. It had never dawned on them that they or anyone in this delegation might be in real physical danger. Like many people around the world, they sometimes had mixed feelings about American foreign policy and the role of the United States in trying to advance—some would say “impose”—her brand of democratic capitalism around the globe. But also like so many non-Americans, they still subconsciously thought of the U.S. as somehow invulnerable to attack. Obviously they were wrong. And now they knew it firsthand. From their “gilded cage”—Tariq’s private quarters—neither man was being allowed to call home or send and receive e-mails.
