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Harrop: Benghazi politicization angers diplomats

By Froma Harrop

Published: January 17, 2016, 6:00am

When Thomas E. McNamara arrived in Colombia as U.S. ambassador in 1988, he encountered a hit list issued by narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar. “I was No. 1,” he recalls. “Ambassadors tend to get that kind of attention.”

No, being a professional foreign service officer is not all about cocktails in Paris, London and Rome. In fact, little of it is. Most members of the U.S. foreign service serve in harsh parts of the world. And much of their job centers on going into dangerous countryside where they’re exposed to some who would do them harm.

Since World War II, at least eight ambassadors have died from hostile action, as opposed to three flag officers — that is, generals and admirals. From 1979 to 2009, some 96 American foreign service members died in attacks.

Which brings us to the Sept. 11, 2012, murders of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. The attacks on our diplomatic compound in Benghazi were a tragedy for everyone, but to professional foreign service officers, the politicization of them was a disgrace.

Blaming then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for security lapses in Benghazi is outrageous, McNamara said, emphasizing that he never worked for her. The secretary of state is not personally involved in such matters.

“Those congressmen wouldn’t give a damn about the death of Americans in Benghazi if they didn’t think they could make political capital out of it,” McNamara angrily added.

A new PBS documentary, “America’s Diplomats,” tries to explain the history and mission of the foreign service.

“It’s easy to understand the 101st Airborne when they go out and they win a big battle for America,” former Secretary of State James Baker says in the film. “It’s not as easy to understand the battles that are won every day in the field by America’s diplomats abroad.”

Thousands of those battles involve helping Americans do business abroad. Example: Some years ago, the European Union issued new rules governing the size of motorcycle engines. The regulations had the effect of freezing out one U.S. manufacturer, Harley-Davidson. American diplomats who had developed relationships with European officials negotiated for some minor changes in the rules. Harley was in.

And there were major humanitarian breakthroughs. As a special envoy, the late Richard Holbrooke led a tireless campaign to end the bloodshed in Bosnia. When Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic wouldn’t let Holbrooke and his team securely land in Sarajevo, the group drove a perilous mountain road to get there. One vehicle transporting team members rolled down a mountainside. All aboard died.

But U.S. diplomacy eventually won out. The 1995 Dayton Accords ended Europe’s worst human calamity since World War II.

Many worry that the political circus around Benghazi will deter American officials from taking risks in the name of diplomacy. That would deny America its first line of defense.

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