Erick Erickson’s blog on this issue is wrong-headed, ill-informed and patently offensive. In my job as a Foreign Service Officer, Consul, and Director of a Passport Agency — yes, I issue passports (I do not “stamp” them) – I have put my life on the line several times at several U.S. overseas posts. In Ethiopia, there was gunfire daily from the new rebel force that had just taken control of the country. My children frequently had to run the gamut of uncontrolled shooters to attend the international school that was only a few blocks from my home in Addis Ababa. I risked my life to help warring rebel factions encamp in the remote wilds of Ethiopia and to begin the process of demobilizing. An unknown terrorist threw a grenade into the embassy compound, where it exploded and did substantial damage. In Uganda, there was gunfire in my neighborhood almost nightly from a terrorist group (the Lord’s Resistance Army) or criminals. I helped several Americans who were shot and seriously wounded receive ?adequate? (and I put that word in quotes purposely) in Kampala?s dirty and dimly-lit hospital. In Mogadishu, I was shot at directly twice while going to meet a contact, who never did show up. And on my first day at the US Liaison Office in that war-torn city, there was a massive fire fight just outside the wall of the old embassy compound. U.S. Marines, pinned down outside the embassy wall, blew a hole in the wall to escape, threatening the lives of the civilians and soldiers inside. Fortunately, no one was killed, that day, although the military officers and enlisted with whom I served side by side told me that that was the worst fire fight they had ever seen. I also witnessed the shooting down of the Blackhawk and the taking of Warrant Officer Durrant as hostage. The bodies of U.S. soldiers were being drug around the streets of Mogadishu by mobs, and I spent several days and nights, with no sleep, working to secure the return of those bodies so they could be sent home to their families. In Ecuador, the embassy was twice closed, for significant periods of time, because of specific and concrete terrorist threats. In my 10 years in China, though I was not in any war zone, I was in many life-threatening situations: because of lack of traffic safety, public sanitation, poor medical care, and mob mentality. Outside the consular section I was nearly crushed to death by a mob of visa seekers who went wild when told they would have to line up. More of the same happened after we, the United States, inadvertently bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. In that mob situation, the Chinese government was complicit: it bused protestors to the embassy site, provided them rocks, and even gave the protestors lunch breaks (ironically, McDonald?s burgers and Coca-Cola). My son, of whom I am immodestly proud, is a new Air Force officer, and at his commissioning ceremony last month, he took the same oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States that I took when I joined the Foreign Service. I have had Foreign Service friends and colleagues die in service at the U.S. embassies in Addis Ababa, Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Riga. To say that these honorable men and women do not deserve a flag to thank them for their service and for the ultimate sacrifice they made is despicable. I find it strange that Mr. Erickson somehow sees civilian employees of the USG as “volunteers.” I am not a volunteer. I can be ordered to serve anywhere by the USG, and that was part of the deal when I signed up for the Foreign Service. I completely and honestly respect the sacrifices that the men and women of the U.S. military make in serving our country, but we must also remember that they, too, in Mr. Erickson?s eyes, are volunteers. Nobody forced them to join the military, just as my son was not forced to participate in the Air Force ROTC. They did so on their own and willingly for the pay and conditions offered them. The draft has not existed since we left Vietnam. Yes, they may have also done so with altruism, wanting to serve their country. But so did I when I became a public servant. Mr. Erickson, you don’t seem to know what you’re talking about; however, you do seem to know that the argument you’re making is designed to offend people of all political persuasions and beliefs. I suggest you rethink your ill-informed position, and recall your denigrating comments about civil servants. I have “stamped” U.S. visas in foreign passports, and issued U.S. passports to American citizens at home and abroad. I believe that doing so was and is an important part of the security of our nation and its borders, despite your notions to the contrary.
Bob DeWitt, a proud Foreign Service Officer, civil servant, and Director of the Minneapolis Passport Agency.