After the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where four Americans (including the U.S. ambassador) were killed, the debate about what went wrong has grown into a heated partisan debate. From it, a refrain of sorts has emerged: we should not “politicize” foreign policy. People of the left and of the right preach that talk of the Benghazi security failure must remain, somehow, above politics.
But foreign policy is inherently political. It is driven by domestic politics and partisan interests. Twisting facts to serve a partisan agenda is distasteful; but the left and the right in this country do disagree on some aspects of U.S. foreign policy, and the process by which either side discusses and eventually builds consensus on those issues is ultimately a political one.
looking beyond borders 