Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. Is that enough? Hang on. Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, and … Benghazi.
In 2012, US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed when members of the group Ansar al-Sharia first attacked a CIA annex and then a diplomatic compound. The US identified the leaders of the group, sent in special forces, and in 2014 captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the man regarded as being most responsible for the attack. Khattala was returned to the US, charged in open court, and is awaiting trial on a plethora of charges including four counts of murder. That’s Benghazi.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, as the secretary of state, publicly accepted responsibility for the deaths. Deaths that, as Politifact notes, were far from unique.
March 20, 2002: A car bomb exploded near the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, killing nine people and injuring 32. ...
June 14, 2002: A suicide bombing in front of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, left 12 dead and 51 injured.
Nov. 9, 2002: The security supervisor for the U.S. embassy in Nepal was shot dead at his house in Kathmandu. …
There were no less than twenty incidents under George W. Bush where attacks on American embassies and consulates resulted in deaths. The list includes suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia, car bombs in Pakistan, and rockets fired into Baghdad. Being a US diplomat has never been a task that comes with a guarantee of safety.
But Benghazi became a battle cry worthy of eight congressional investigations and endless Republican chest beating, especially by Donald Trump. During the campaign, it seems as if the safety of embassy staff was of well-nigh infinite importance. But as Austin Wright reports at Politico, that’s no longer true.
President Donald Trump has yet to nominate the State Department official who oversees diplomatic security abroad — despite having made the 2012 Benghazi attacks a centerpiece of his campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Of course, there’s a reason for Trump not to nominate a security officer for the State Department: He hates the State Department. Far from the high value Trump declared for diplomats during the campaign, his actions have demonstrated that he doesn’t value either the workers or their work. Other than the EPA, the State Department faces the greatest level of cuts in the proposed Trump budget. In dozens of countries, Trump has failed to fill vacancies at embassies and consulates. In Washington he’s discarded the annual report on human rights that was previously the focus of the foreign policy year. Instead Rex Tillerson is sent to stump around the globe, carrying a message that seems to change daily while dodging both the public and the press.
The fact that Trump hasn’t selected someone to watch out for diplomats is perfectly reflective of his own attitude toward them.
Democrats attributed the lack of a nominee to two factors: the administration’s overall slow pace of making appointments for senior jobs at federal agencies, especially the State Department, and Trump’s decision to prioritize hiring at the Defense Department over State.
“Unfortunately,” Engel said, “I think it’s indicative of the low priority that Trump and the administration are placing on diplomacy or anything to do with the State Department.”
Why hire diplomats when there are still plenty of $1.4 million missiles and $16 million bombs available?
State Department employees had value as long as they could be used as clubs against Hillary. Now? Not so much.