With this revelation, the late ambassador has become the symbol of what U.S. foreign policy is doing vis-a-vis the global jihad, and of what ultimately will be the outcome for the U.S. if this continues.
“Slain Ambassador Chris Stevens Slipped Into Libya on a Cargo Ship During Revolution,” by Amy Bingham for ABC OTUS News, September 12:
During the early days of the Libyans’ fight to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, Christopher Stevens wrangled a ride on a Greek cargo ship and sailed into the rebels’ stronghold city of Benghazi. He arrived at a time when the crackle of gunfire could be heard each night.
Stevens and his team didn’t even have a place to stay, but found space in a hotel briefly, moving out after a car bomb went off in the parking lot, according to his own account in State Magazine last year.
Stevens, whose diplomatic foothold were a couple of battered tables, was on literally on the rebels’ side while the revolution was at its most vulnerable and in danger of being crushed by Gadhafi’s troops who were moving on the city. The threat was pushed back at the last minute by the intervention of NATO planes which began bombing Gadhafi’s tanks and troops.
Stevens, who was elevated to ambassador four months ago, was killed Tuesday by militants in Gadhafi who stormed the Benghazi consulate.
Stevens “will be remembered as a hero by many nations,” his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said this morning. “He risked his life to stop a tyrant then gave his life trying to help build a better Libya. The world needs more Chris Stevenses.”…
And it will surely get them.
In a State Department video introducing Stevens as the new ambassador to Libya last May, Stevens says he “quickly grew to love this part of the world” during his time in the Peace Corps and since joining the Foreign Service “spent almost my entire career in the Middle East and Africa.”
He says in the video that he “was thrilled to watch the Libyan people stand up and demand their rights” during the 2011 revolution, which ousted Gadhafi.
At his Senate confirmation hearing in March, Stevens said, “It will be an extraordinary honor to represent the United States during this historic period of transition in Libya.”…
An honor.