Opinion Diplomats deserve better
Those who represent their nations overseas believe they can make a difference. They must be protected
THERE is a black wall in a state department lobby inscribed with the names of those who died while serving overseas. Every time I passed that wall after al-Qaeda blew up two American embassies in east Africa in 1998,I thought of the 12 American and 32 Kenyan friends and colleagues who died on my watch as ambassador. I thought of my own journey that day down flights of stairs in the building next door to the embassy,after having been knocked out by the blast,of the people who risked their lives to save others,and of how we carried on under horrendous circumstances. Now every time I pass the black marble wall,I will think of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and his colleagues who died after an attack on our consulate in Benghazi,Libya,this week.
Diplomats dont often make headlines until something horrible happens. Even then,it is policy and politics that get the attention. We had barely learned of the attack before talking heads began to expound on Middle East policies and the words administration officials used,or should have used,to uphold our national dignity. Where were the conversations about the diplomats who were actually carrying out those policies in faraway,often dangerous places,the people who take care of us despite the hardship and risk? Imagine what it must have been like trying to escape the raging fire in the Benghazi consulate or enduring hours of assault in the annexe waiting for relief from the Libyan government.
Diplomacy is a dangerous profession. You cannot exert influence by whispering in diplomatic code to your government counterparts behind closed doors. You do not spread American values by remote control from Washington. You have to get out from behind the walls and engage with people. We know this can put us in harms way; our people in the Benghazi consulate knew it. And they did their jobs anyway. That is because,hokey as it sounds,the people who represent us overseas really do believe they can make a difference.
We must make that work safer. The reasons for violence change with time and place but the human effects are the same. For two years before we were blown up in Nairobi,Kenya,my team and I fought to have security threats and vulnerabilities addressed. We were too close to the street,an easy target. Washingtons assessment was that things were O.K. Anyway,I was told,there was no money for a more secure embassy. What was Washingtons assessment of our consulate in Benghazi? We may not like the image of American diplomats working out of fortified boxes,but we cannot let them work in buildings that can be overrun by attackers. This is a lesson our government still hasnt learned since 1979 in Tehran.
If the Benghazi tragedy traces the same journey we made from the rubble in Nairobi,heartfelt pronouncements will be made; the dead will be given due homage and then they will be buried. The press will alight on other stories. A Congressionally mandated accountability review board will determine what happened and what needs to be done to avoid such tragedies in the future. Easy fixes will be made; expensive and hard ones will not.
The foreign service is short on people,and those people are rushed into the field short on training. We build concrete fortresses when we have to,but we dont invest in the mobile communications and security technology that would protect diplomats when they leave the embassy,as they must. What kinds of technology,systems,training and deployment do we need to get results through diplomacy in the 21st century? These are the difficult questions that will remain unanswered,while diplomats disappear from public view once again.
PRUDENCE BUSHNELL is a former US ambassador to Kenya and Guatemala
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