2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: An American Ambassador died on Hillary Clinton's watch. He was HER employee; MURDERED. [View all]MBS
(9,688 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 29, 2015, 09:17 AM - Edit history (1)
For better or worse, the State Department has ALWAYS had a mix of ambassadors: some are career diplomats, some are political appointees.
This has been true of every administration I know about or have read about.
I'm sure that career diplomats/foreign service officers would have choice words to say about having to put up with political appointees, who, to be as kind as I can, are variable in quality and expertise.(Sometimes political appointees can truly be good; but there are a lot of embarrassing ones, too).
But that's just the way it's always been, no matter what the administration. It's not new.And it's in fact a perennial debate, which usually surfaces every time an embarrassingly unqualified political appointee comes up for senate confirmation, or embarrasses themselves while on duty.
As far as I can tell, ambassadors to "trouble spot" countries are almost always career diplomats. Political appointees are usually assigned to "easier" or more stable countries.
Chris Stevens was a career diplomat (and by all accounts a wonderful and courageous one, and his death is a real loss).
Caroline Kennedy is a political appointee; to say the least, she was not picked because of her deep knowledge of the Japanese language.
And, BTW, "Benghazi" is a completely manufactured non-scandal.
Stevens' death was a real tragedy, and, given the instability of especially that part of the world, the State Department probably does need to work on more effective ways of improving security -- and this is the hard part --without walling off US staff from the countries they're supposed to be dealing with. In hostile or unstable countries, this balancing act will always be a challenge, and one for which there is never a single or ultimate solution.
But as far as "Benghazi" is concerned, there is no there there.