After the explosive hearings and testimony on Benghazi last week, it has become clear that this is a major scandal for the Obama administration and it will have far reaching consequences for certain individuals. Whilst everyone focuses on how it could affect individuals like President Obama, Hillary Clinton and other members of the Administration in different ways – it will affect America in other more immediate and direct ways.
Future Embassy Security
One of the many staples in International Law is the protection of all overseas Embassies – it is an unwritten rule that you protect all Embassies on your soil because if you don’t, your Embassies might be danger in foreign countries.
Regardless of which account you believe, it is clear that the Embassy in Benghazi was not properly protected. The chain of command was broken, not listened to or ignored, when assistance was required and when the Embassy was breached, backup was either, not available, unusable or told to stand down by the administration. These all highlight a failure in securing the Benghazi Embassy and also make you wonder how many other Embassies around the world are in a similar position.
Terrorism
The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said recently when he was trying to duck questions “Benghazi happened a long time ago”. What is amazing is that whilst it happened so long ago, how little the American people actually know about that night and how little justice has been done. Does anyone have any update on who killed those four Americans and what America is doing to bring them to justice? Does the Obama Administration even care? Ultimately, you have to treat a terrorist similar as to how you discipline a child. When a child does something wrong, you do not want to encourage them, you want them to know what they have done wrong, why the behaviour was unacceptable and arguably the most important part is the consequences of their behaviour. If you fail to do this with a child, they will believe there is nothing wrong with their behaviour and it can become common place and get more severe. The same can be said for a terrorist. If a terrorist finds out it’s acceptable (or there is little repercussion) to attacking an American Embassy and killing an Ambassador, they will continue to do so and become even more adventurous in their tactics. Anytime an American is killed a message needs to be sent to those responsible – this behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated, we will hunt and find those responsible and bring them to justice. This is not done by words and speeches, IT IS DONE BY ACTION!
Future Ambassadors
Today’s world is a very dangerous place and there are many serious issues facing it. America needs to be the leader and the voice for Freedom and Liberty. To do this, America needs the best and brightest people in key positions overseas. If America is going to continue sending Ambassadors and personnel to dangerous places, they need to know they will be protected. This scandal and cover up may well deter some potentially great Ambassadors from taking up future positions, which will benefit nobody. Some might argue that America has Embassies all over the world and that this was only one attack and I am being dramatic – however I would argue once is one time too many for this type of attack to happen.
Military Personnel
I can only imagine what the brave members of the armed forces thought about Benghazi. One thing I admire most about the military is – they never leave anyone behind. Regardless of whom you believe on whether the aircraft was 3 hours or 14 hours away – THEY DID NOT EVEN TRY to rescue or help the survivors in Benghazi. More could have and should have been done to help these brave men. Whilst the Benghazi scandal is massive, there is one image I cannot get out of my head – the image of those marines fighting for their lives during the night and protecting others, waiting on the backup that never came – that is something that stays with you for life. We needed help and nobody came. That had to affect not only the morals of the current members of the military but also of people who are considering joining the military in the future.