The Ambassador

<p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The little girl bled in her father's arms as pursuing soldiers fired. Rounds CRACKED past as Marines at the Embassy gates shouted and her father begged... All the while her eyes were on me.</strong></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </strong></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>What would you do?</em></strong></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em> </em></strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Jackson Ford's a disgraced former governor who recognizes a second chance when the president's chief of staff dangles it.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The president needs an ambassador in a third-world nation. Someone to help local tyrants stamp out insurrection while keeping privation and violence out of the election-year news. Ford is a tough idealist but this administration makes it clear that they don't want idealism. They want one thing.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Obedience.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>When a rebel leader shows up outside the embassy gates with a wounded child in his arms Ford can watch the girl bleed out or invoke the wrath of dictators and the president.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Ford's decision puts the embassy under siege. He and the Embassy Marines are outgunned by the army outside their walls and betrayed by the enemies within. Ford doesn't know if history will liken their stand to the Alamo or to Bastogne but he does know they will not betray the ideals that should stir in the heart of anyone who sees the American flag aloft and under fire.</span></p>