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Advisers to Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his sharp criticism of President Obama and said that the deadly protests sweeping the Middle East would not have happened if the Republican nominee were president.

“There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, said in an interview. “For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated.”

Williamson added, “In Egypt and Libya and Yemen, again demonstrations — the respect for America has gone down, there’s not a sense of American resolve and we can’t even protect sovereign American property.”

The aggressive approach by Romney’s campaign thrust the issue of foreign policy to the forefront of the presidential campaign a day after the Republican candidate was widely criticized for blasting Obama while U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya were under attack.

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But Seven U.S. Embassies And Consulates Were Attacked Under George W. Bush

2002: U.S. Consulate In Karachi, Pakistan, Attacked; 10 Killed, 51 Injured. From a June 15, 2002, Chicago Tribune article:

Police cordoned off a large area around the U.S. Consulate late Friday and began combing through the carnage and debris for clues after a car explosion killed at least 10 people, injured 51 others and left Pakistan's largest city bleeding from yet another terrorist atrocity.

No Americans were among the dead, and only six of the injured were inside the consulate compound at the time of the blast Friday morning. One Pakistani police officer on guard outside the building was among the dead, but many of those killed were pedestrians or motorists in the area at the time of the explosion.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad reported that five Pakistani consular employees and a Marine guard were slightly wounded by flying debris.

Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on Islamic militants known to be active in Karachi. [Chicago Tribune, 6/15/02, via Nexis]

2004: U.S. Embassy Bombed In Uzbekistan. From a July 31, 2004, Los Angeles Times article:

Suicide bombers on Friday struck the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan, killing two local guards and injuring at least nine others in the second wave of attacks this year against a key U.S. ally during the war in Afghanistan.

The prosecutor general's office also was hit in the coordinated afternoon attacks in the capital city of Tashkent. It sustained more damage than either of the embassies, where guards prevented bombers from entering.

The attacks came as 15 Muslim militants linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network went on trial in a series of bombings and other assaults in March that killed 47 people.

The explosions Friday caused relatively little physical damage but rattled a country in which the U.S. has maintained an air base crucial to the battle against Islamic militants in neighboring Afghanistan. [Los Angeles Times, 7/31/04, via Nexis]

2004: Gunmen Stormed U.S. Consulate In Saudi Arabia. From a December 6, 2004, New York Times article:

A group of attackers stormed the American Consulate in the Saudi Arabian city of Jidda today, using explosives at the gates to breach the outer wall and enter the compound, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement. At least eight people were killed in the incident, in which guards and Saudi security forces confronted the group, according to the ministry and news agencies.

Three of the attackers were killed. Five non-American employees were killed, an American embassy spokesman, Carol Kalin, told Reuters. She declined to provide the nationality of those killed, but said they were members of the consulate staff.

Reuters reported that Saudi security officials said four of their men also died in the incident, which would bring the death toll to 12. [The New York Times, 12/6/04]

2006: Armed Men Attacked U.S. Embassy In Syria. From a September 13, 2006, Washington Post article:

Four armed men attacked the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, killing one Syrian security guard and wounding several people in what authorities said was an attempt by Islamic guerrillas to storm the diplomatic compound.

Just after 10 a.m., gunmen yelling " Allahu akbar " -- "God is great" -- opened fire on the Syrian security officers who guard the outside of the embassy in Damascus's Rawda district, witnesses said. The attackers threw grenades at the compound, according to witnesses, and shot at the guards with assault rifles during the 15- to 20-minute clash, which left three of the gunmen dead and the fourth reportedly wounded. [The Washington Post, 9/13/06]

2007: Grenade Launched Into U.S. Embassy In Athens. From The New York Times:

An antitank grenade was fired into the heavily fortified American Embassy here just before dawn today. The building was empty, but the attack underscored deep anti-American sentiment here and revived fears of a new round of homegrown terror.

Greek officials said they doubted the attack was the work of foreign or Islamic terrorists, but rather that of regrouped extreme leftists aiming at a specific, symbolic target: a huge American seal, of a double-headed eagle against a blue background, affixed to the front of the boxy, modern embassy near downtown. [The New York Times, 1/12/07]

2008: Rioters Set Fire To U.S. Embassy In Serbia. From The New York Times:

Demonstrators attacked the U.S. Embassy here and set part of it ablaze Thursday as tens of thousands of angry Serbs took to the streets of Belgrade to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Witnesses said that at least 300 rioters broke into the embassy and torched some of its rooms. One protester was able to rip the American flag from the facade of the building. An estimated 1,000 demonstrators cheered as the vandals, some wearing masks to conceal their faces, jumped onto the building's balcony waving a Serbian flag and chanting "Serbia, Serbia!" the witnesses said. A convoy of police officers firing tear gas was able to disperse the crowd. [The New York Times, 2/21/08]

2008: Ten People Killed In Bombings At U.S. Embassy In Yemen. From The New York Times:

Militants disguised as soldiers detonated two car bombs outside the United States Embassy compound in Sana, Yemen, on Wednesday morning, killing 16 people, including 6 of the attackers, Yemeni officials said.

No American officials or embassy employees were killed or wounded, embassy officials said. Six of the dead were Yemeni guards at the compound entrance, and the other four killed were civilians waiting to be allowed in.

It was the deadliest and most ambitious attack in years in Yemen, a poor south Arabian country of 23 million people where militants aligned with Al Qaeda have carried out a number of recent bombings. [The New York Times, 9/17/08]

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1983: Bomb Blast At U.S. Embassy In Beirut Killed More Than 60, Including 17 Americans. From an ABC News article on the 25th anniversary of the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon:

Beirut was arguably the most dangerous city in the world. Car bombs inside the city were common, and extremist elements plotted in the nearby Bekaa Valley.

It was exactly 25 years ago today that a bomber detonated 2,000 lbs. of explosives in front of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and killed more than 60 people, including 17 Americans. Forty-four people inside the embassy survived.

Among them was the man who leads the U.S. Embassy in what is now considered the most dangerous place for American diplomats: Baghdad. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was serving as a political officer in Beirut and survived the blast.

It was at the time the deadliest terror attack on Americans abroad; six months later another bomber killed 241 in an attack on the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport. [ABC News, 4/18/07]

1983: Car Bomb Damaged U.S. Embassy In Kuwait. From a December 12, 1983, New York Times article:

Bombs exploded outside the United States Embassy in Kuwait, a residential complex used by Americans and other foreign personel [sic] and at the airport there early this morning, the State Department said.

There were conflicting reports on the number of deaths and extent of injuries, but a State Department spokesman said that ''to the best of our knowledge'' no Americans were injured.

Initial reports said that a number of people had been killed at both locations and that there was great damage at both the embassy and the airport, where the control tower was destroyed.

Diplomatic sources were reported as saying that the explosion at the residential complex was near the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the outskirts of the town.

[...]

The spokesman, Brian Carlson, said the damage to the embassy from the explosion at 9:40 A.M., Kuwait time (1:40 A.M., New York time) was ''extensive.''

Two people were killed and 20 injured, according to the Associated Press. Reuters said there were heavy casualties at the embassy and at least one death at the airport caused by the explosions. [The New York Times, 12/12/83, via Nexis]

1987: Car Bomb Exploded Outside U.S. Embassy In Italy. From a June 9, 1987, Associated Press article:

A car bomb shattered windows and set fire to parked cars near the U.S. Embassy today, and bombs exploded on the grounds of the U.S. and British embassies. An anonymous caller linked the attacks to the seven-power summit in Venice.

A woman who was near the car that blew up was hospitalized for shock, police said. There were no other reported injuries.

A caller to a news service in London claimed that the attacks were the work of the Anti-Imperialist International Brigade. The man, who spoke English with a slight accent, said the bombings proved "that the revolutionary will is stronger than the high security measures taken for the protection of the so-called seven giants of the world." [Associated Press, 6/9/87, via Nexis]

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