Diplomacy

An old expression is you can pick your friends, but not your relatives.  On this small blue marble, there really is not a lot of choice regarding friends.

Our Government is often criticized for the nations with which we maintain diplomatic relations.  An example is Libya.  It has been an on and off again thing, going back to King Idris in the 1950s, after Libya became independent of Italy.  Now we are helping rebels overthrow the man who overthrew King Idris.

Here is a comment by Reporter Michael Yon that puts diplomacy, and our relationship with Libya, in perspective:

In about 2006, I met with Deputy Sec State Paula DeSutter in her big office in Washington.  We must have talked for a couple of hours about Libya.  She and others were apparently key in the 'warming' of relations with Libya.  The biggest part of our conversation revolved around things like mustard gas in Libya.  We wanted him to give it up, and also in the post 9/11 days when Bush had credibility that he'd use the military, Qaddafi saw that threatening us was a bad idea.  I didn't walk away from the conversation with the idea that relations were really warm, but that we were trading chips and being pragmatic, as was Qaddafi.

Diplomacy may be garden parties and black tie dinners, but behind all that surface glitz it is about "trading chips and being pragmatic".  And a lot of pragmatic exchange of information and agreements.  Asset forfiture in criminal cases, for example, doesn't happen just in the Department of Justice offices in Washington, DC.  Crime is becoming transnational and thus asset forfiture also happens because of actions in US Embassies and Consulates overseas.  Another example is the Agricultural Attaché who helps arrange the buying and selling of agricultural products and their clearance across borders.

And military power helps support diplomatic activity.  It is unlikely Libya would have given up its nuclear weapons program without US Military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our Diplomats represent us well overseas.  I know some of them and am proud of them.  Are there some who are just there for the parties?  I am sure there are, but the vast majority are hardworking and insightful.

And, it is an interesting career field.  I know one person who went from being an IBM sales representative in Texas to important posts as a Junior Foreign Service Officer in the Middle East and Latin America.  Then she was sent to attend one of the US Military's Senior Service Schools, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF).  She has been having a very interesting and challenging career.  And, has married and raised a family along the way.

Regards  —  Cliff