Hillary Clinton worked to make diplomats safe

As a former U.S. ambassador, I know

Just a few short weeks ago, after four intense years, I stepped down as undersecretary of State for political affairs, responsible for the day-to-day work of all regional bureaus and international organizations. Thanks to thenSecretary Hillary Clinton’s leadership, and continued by now Secretary John Kerry, I began every day looking at intelligence and getting information from every region to see which diplomats, which locally employed staff and which U.S. citizens might be at physical risk, and what we needed to do about it.

Every day, ambassadors also look at risk, and thanks to Secretary Clinton’s initiative, work to implement every recommendation of the non-partisan Accountability Review Board convened after the tragic death of our colleagues in Benghazi, Libya.

Sadly, I was at Andrews Air Force Base to honor the fallen Americans after the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and then again after Benghazi. What we learned in 1998 and again in 2012 is that the world changes; that we cannot know, particularly in an age of threats from terrorists, what new challenge will come at us. But what Secretary Clinton did to meet this challenge, and Secretary Madeleine Albright before her, is what matters.

We have expanded and enhanced training for diplomatic security, particularly for highrisk, high-threat posts. We’ve created more diplomatic security positions and secured more support from Marine guards.

Because of Secretary Clinton, and, of course, President Obama, our highest priority is security, for our diplomats and for our nation. As secretary of State, Hillary Clinton also took critical action to make our world safer, fundamental to making our diplomats and our country safer. She guided the State Department to repair relations around the globe and brokered major agreements that made our world safer, such as the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. She led the effort to impose the toughest sanctions in U.S. history on Iran, fought to expand Internet freedom and continually promoted the betterment of women and girls.

A congressional committee has now spent 17 months and $4.5 million of taxpayer money in a secret, partisan investigation into the attack at our compound in Benghazi. It has not made one single recommendation.

It would be more productive for Congress to increase the overall State Department budget so we could harden more embassies, have more programs for countering violent extremism and build even stronger efforts to thwart terrorists.

Members of our diplomatic corps risk their lives every day all around the world in an effort to broker peaceful solutions to perilous conflicts. It’s time that Congress also honor their legacy and truly focus on strengthening our expeditionary diplomacy, rather than going on seemingly fruitless fishing expeditions.