The foreign service officers' memorial (what I shove in the face of Republicans who say Benghazi) [View all]

[Recursion]

There actually is no Foreign Service Officers' Memorial, anywhere, which may surprise people. Not at Foggy Bottom in DC, or at FSI in Arlington, or on the Mall. There's a set of plaques that are kept updated as FSOs are killed in the line of duty. The plaques are displayed at State in DC, at I think every Embassy, and in a few Consulates General (we have a partial plaque here in Mumbai). (Also, I still don't quite grasp the distinction between a Consulate and a Consulate General; nobody I can ask seems to either.)

This will surprise nobody, but being an FSO isn't the safest job in the world. 245 have been killed in the line of duty, from William Palfrey (lost at sea, 1780) to Antoinette Tomasek (car crash in Haiti, 2013). The Marines are there to protect the records, not them (and only 1/3rd of posts have Marine guards, for that matter -- we should fix that, but Republicans keep blocking us).

I was a Marine for almost a decade, and get all kinds of kudos and cheers wherever I go. My wife has been an FSO for even longer, in some incredibly risky posts (Haiti during the quake, Sri Lanka during the civil war, etc.) but she doesn't get drinks bought for her at the bar like I do. That's messed up.

But it absolutely infuriates me when Republicans act like Benghazi was some kind of unprecedented thing: Foreign Service Officers put their lives on the line every ****ing day and get none of the thanks from Republicans for it that we military vets do. For those curious, here is the online Memorial to those officers who died serving the United States in the Foreign Service.

Despite the rumors, nobody in the FS "bought" their job, except by missing weddings, funerals, births, and other events for 2/3rds of their adult life. Even among ambassadors, who can be politically appointed, 3/5ths are career foreign service officers. This is a dedicated and brave cadre of people that we should be glad are working for us, and they deserve better than being political footballs for Darrell Issa.