I learned to swim at the U.S. Embassy swimming pool in Niamey, Niger, in 1976. Little did I know, that would lead to a career as a U.S. Navy diver.
It wasn’t pool parties, picnics or watching movies at the Recreation Center, the only entertainment in a country that didn’t have television, that prompted my 25-year career as a special operations officer. It was the Marines from the Security Guard Detachment that stood watch at the embassy all day, every day.
Even though they were fun during picnics or dressing up as elves to escort Santa riding on a camel at Christmas, under those smiles were steely-eyed warriors. There was no question that they would put their lives on the line to protect us. I knew I wanted to be like them by standing watch over the country that gave my family a second chance.
U.S. embassies are considered sovereign U.S. territory. Even police officers from the host nation cannot come aboard without authorization from the U.S. ambassador, the direct representative of the president of the United States. My family learned this just a year earlier as we escaped Vietnam.
US EMBASSY IN NIGER PARTIALLY EVACUATED AFTER MILITARY TAKEOVER, BLINKEN SAYS
My oldest sister was an American by birth when my parents married in Ithaca and attended Cornell University. Her protected status allowed us to narrowly escape the communists who would assuredly send my father to a concentration camp or execute him. The small plot of land was a sanctuary for those who sought refuge, a beacon of hope in the darkest moments.
President Biden has abandoned his sixth U.S. embassy in less than three years. His first was the atrocious withdrawal from Afghanistan, where I had completed my last combat deployment six months before.
Afghanistan was stable enough and the fledgling Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) were just learning to stand on their own two feet. Our plan was to leave 2,500 special operators as a quick reaction force. Joe Biden neither approved nor disapproved the plan, resulting in the loss of 11 Marines, a sailor and a soldier.
As a contingency, if we had to evacuate, the 75th Ranger Regiment was to surround Bagram Air Base while we flew everyone out, and they would fold in at the end and exfil. Biden’s team gave up Bagram to the Taliban before anything else, leaving us with no plan B.
The additional U.S. Embassy evacuations in Ukraine, Belarus, Sudan, Haiti and now Niger show Biden’s failed foreign policy and weakness. While Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is bowing multiple times to greet Xi Xiping, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken is going on talk shows, China, Russia and Iran are collecting valuable diplomatic equity around the world.
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What was Biden’s excuse? We didn’t have the forces? What about the Marine Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) company stationed in Rota, Spain, whose job is exactly for that task? Or better yet, why not call the special operators in Northern Niger, in Agadez?
When there is a leadership void in the world, there is a long line of countries waiting to fill that void. In less than three years, we have left a huge crater in the world diplomatic forum.
The Abraham Accords brought peace in the Middle East for the first time in my life, and before the ink dried, those countries quickly turned to China for leadership. Iran is rattling its saber in the Persian Gulf, taking over commercial ships, and the insurrectionists in Niger are waving Russian flags.
We need leadership in Washington, D.C. Not bureaucrats or lifelong politicians. We need doers and people who have served this nation, not for glory or riches, but for the honor to just be Americans. This is why I am running for the U.S. Senate against lifelong politician Tim Kaine.
Virginia needs someone who believes in the same values of God, family and country, but more importantly, Virginia deserves someone who will fight for them, not special interest groups. We need a strong legislative branch and a strong judicial branch for checks and balances on the executive branch. It’s time to stop surrendering.
