TRUMP’s FOREIGN POLICY IS BAD FOR THE WORLD

…Former US Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch

With patriots such as the former Ambassador to Ukraine, US diplomacy will be in good hands

I have such positive support for those hard working government workers of American’s foreign diplomacy, such as the former Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.  This is an ambassador that was known to be a strong fighter for removing corruption in the countries in which she was assigned by the US State Department.  Those countries include Somalia, Armenia and the Ukraine, which were all known as corrupt countries before she was assigned as the US Ambassador.

After nearly 34 years working for the State Department, due to our president, she was forced to say goodbye to a career that she loved.  It must be a strange feeling to transition from decades of communicating in the careful words of a diplomat, to an American that is free to speak exclusively for herself.  That is what she did for this article.

The former ambassador recently said that she would like to share with the American people her answer to a question that so many people have asked her.  That question is, “What do the events of her being pushed out of her job by Trump’s team, who were going after the Ukriane’s president for helping Trump’s re-election, so what does all that mean to our country’s future foreign policy?

What she has since decided, is to share with the American people, her understanding of what our country represents for those many people like her and her family that left the wreckage of World War II in Europe.  It was her family’s move to the US that were in search of a better life.  The ambassador has a very keen understanding of any immigrants that rested their hopes, not in the possibility of prosperity, but in America’s strong, small “d” democracy.  She has determined that America is a country with resilient institutions and a government that has sought to advance the interests of its citizens.  And we are a nation where there is a society in which freedom is cherished and all dissent is protected.  She says that these are the American treasures that must be carefully guarded by all of us who call ourselves Americans.

Obviously, that is not being done by the current administration.

Unfortunately, Trump’s goons and his minions forced her out of her position, just to get election support from a small, young country, currently in a physical war with our main adversary, Putin’s Russia.

It was when some civil servants, such as Ms. Yovanovitch, within the current administration, they saw senior officials taking actions they considered deeply wrong in regard to the nation of Ukraine.  They then refused to take part.  When the House asked those individuals to testify about those illegal activities, her colleagues and herself did not hesitate, even in the face of Trump’s personnel’s efforts to silence them.

President Trump's attempt to extort Ukraine for personal gain signaled a dangerous turn for American foreign policy, and this revelation is per the Global Opinions editor, Christian Caryl.

The G.O. did this because this is the American way for speaking up about wrongdoing. 

This former ambassador has seen dictatorships around the world, where blind obedience is the norm and truth-tellers are threatened with punishment or death.  Government workers must not allow the United States to become a country where standing up to our government is a dangerous act. It has been shocking to experience the storm of criticism, lies and malicious conspiracies that have preceded and followed her public testimony, but she has said that she has no regrets.  She did, and they did, what their conscience called for them to do. They did what their US citizenship required them to do.

Unfortunately, this last year has shown that all Americans need to fight for our democracy. “Freedom is not free” is a phrase that usually refers to the sacrifices of our military against external threats.  

But Ms. Yovanovitch says, that as it turns out, that same slogan can be applied to challenges which are much closer to home.  “We need to stand up for our values, defend our institutions, participate in civil society and support our free press. Every citizen doesn’t need to do everything, but each one of us must do one thing.  Every day, we need to see American citizens around us doing just that: reanimating the Constitution and the values it represents.  We must do this even when the odds seem against us, even when wrongdoers seem to be rewarded, just because it is the right thing to do.”

Ambassador Yovanovitch had always thought that our institutions would forever protect us against individual transgressors. But she says, our institutions need us as much as we need them; “They need the American people to protect them or they will be hollowed out over time, unable to serve and protect our country.”

The ambassador has stated that the State Department is filled with individuals of integrity and professionalism. They advance US interests every day, whether they are repatriating Americans vulnerable to a pandemic, reporting on civil unrest, negotiating military basing rights or helping a US company navigate a foreign country.  As new foreign powers rise, alliances tend to fray, and transnational threats require international solutions.  She says that our diplomats are more than ready to address these challenges.

However, according to her, our public servants need responsible and ethical political leadership, and they aren’t getting it today.  The current administration, through acts of omission and commission, has undermined our democratic institutions, which is making the public question the truth.  Today, they leave public servants without the appropriate support without examples of ethical behavior that they need in order to do their jobs and advance US interests.

She says that the next generation of diplomats is counting on something better.  The newest US diplomats fill her with new hope. They are smart, motivated and idealistic, and yet they are realistic about the unprecedented challenges facing the United States.  While it was bittersweet for her to retire from a job that she loved, she is aware that there is a new generation of experts who will advance our interests in this increasingly dangerous world.

This Feb. 14, the newest class of diplomats will swear an oath, as so many before them have done, to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”; and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

She also admits that these are extremely turbulent times, perhaps the most challenging that America has witnessed.

But the former ambassador still intends to find ways to engage on foreign policy issues and to encourage those who want to take part in the important work of the Foreign Service.

As her parents before her were, she remains optimistic about America’s future. The events of the past year, while deeply disturbing to her, they show that even though our institutions and our fellow citizens are being challenged in ways that few had ever expected, she is sure, America will endure.

She is sure that we will persist and we will prevail. 

With patriots such as Ms. Yovanovitch, that can only be good for America.

Copyright G. Ater 2020