Postings to Iraq Upset Diplomats

AP ^ | 10-31-2007 | By MATTHEW LEE

[johnny7]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."

[Joan Kerrey]

diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a “potential death sentence.”

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Could be payback time and cleanup time. I don’t see a problem here...heh,heh,heh!!!

[sitkaspruce]

Fire anyone of them who refuses to go. They volunteered to be diplomats. Sucks to have an assignment outside of the Green Zone where they may not have cold drinks and swimming pools.

[Blue State Insurgent]

Send me.

[JimSEA]

Give me the pay and benefits of the State Department and Blackwater to protect me and I’ll happily go. This is just anti-Americanism by the people at State.

[Allegra]

Meet ‘em at the airport and hand out socks and crying towels, Allegra. You’ve been there what four years?

Four years come January '08.

I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

I've seen war and now...I'm seeing the beginning of peace. Yes, peace is breaking out in Iraq. (What?? The media isn't talking about this back home???)

What an amazing journey and an absolute life affirming experience.

And what a bunch of weinies those loafer-wearing, latte-sipping, Blackberry-addicted State Department people are.

[Enterprise]

"He also stressed that all diplomats sign an oath to serve the country that obligates them to be available to work anywhere in the world."

That must be the problem. They didn't understand what they signed. (Hee hee hee)

[Allegra]

diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."

Oh, quit your freakin' whining, you bunch of State Department snots. "Potential death sentence." Please. What a gaggle of drama queens.

[airborne]

I’m sure that with all of their ‘people skills’ they’ll be able to find jobs at McDonalds or Burger King with very little trouble.

[Reaganesque]

Time to clean out the State Department. Fire them all and start over again. “Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

[pissant]

I doubt they are qualified for any real labor such as burger flipping. Used Car salesmen, perhaps.

[Leisler]

STATE DEPARTMENT UNION HEAD RESPONDS TO FORCED IRAQ POSTINGS

"I'm not going and you can't make me!"

[Leisler]

OFFICIAL CLOTHES SUPPLIER TO UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC CORPS.

[Allegra]

"Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone," said one who identified himself as Jack Crotty, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces.

Oh, give me a break! Incoming is not coming into the Green Zone these days! I just had a serve a few days' sentence in the Green Zone for meetings. There hasn't been a hit on the place in months.

"I would just urge you, now that now we are looking at compulsory service in a war zone, that we have a moral imperative as an agency to take care of people who ... come back with war wounds," said Rachel Schnelling...

Oh, cry me a freakin' RIVER! Almost everybody comes back from Iraq with no "war wounds." I've never seen such a bunch of whiny drama queens in my life.

[CPOSharky]

I was at a military exchage in Germany and was told that as retired military I couldn’t shop there. I asked about the obviously non-military 20-something type shopping and was told he was State Department.

Send them to Iraq, they can use the exchanges to buy their crying towels.

[kabar]

As a are retired foreign service officer who served in hardship and danger posts, including in Iran during the fall of the Shah and the arrival of Khomeini, I am ashamed of such a response from many of my former colleagues. Many foreign service officers have lost their lives in the service of their country. The current crop dishonors their memory.

Part of the problem is that many FSOs today have never served in the military. I am a Vietnam vet with 8 years of military service and most of the FSOs I served with when I entered in 1972 had military service. They understood that their job could involve being exposed to dangerous situations. Since the end of WWII, more ambassadors have been killed in the line of duty than generals. Our embassies have been blown up around the globe and many US diplomats killed or injured. This sounds more like a political statement than anything else. Shame.

[Sudetenland]

Department of State has always been a fifth column organization. Bunch of know-it-all elitist who have very little to feel elite about.

[JohnBovenmyer]

This is a Reagan vs. the Aircraft Controllers union opportunity. Everyone who refuses to go and gets fired will be one less anti-American leaker at Foggy Bottom. The only questions should be how many do we need to fire (I fear that 88-12 split may be meaningful), how quickly we can replace then with pro-American types and how few we can get by with during the transition. Ideally we get someone like Bolton to suggest whom we want to send as a way of purging them.

[Doctor Raoul]

The State department recruiters lied to them.

[skinkinthegrass]

...As long as these liberal "Government bureaucrats(State/CIA)" were safe/cozy and @ home, these "bureaucrats" turned traitor on GWB, now they’re being placed in positions, where there is real danger......maybe now they’ll start doing their jobs...if not, then they should be fired.

[section9]

There was only so much that Condi could do to change the Department. Bush is deeply unpopular at State and Rice is seen as "Bush's Secretary". They pine for a Clinton Restoration, and Iraq is seen as "Bush's War". There are a lot of people here who don't understand that. DOS never supported the GWOT, even under Powell. It's a Clintonite outpost.

Don't blame Condi for this. Hell, she's the one who instituted the draft and has tried to push some necessary reforms, such as moving people out of Paris and Berlin and moving them to Calcutta and Bangkok.

If Fred or Rudy become President, there are those in the Department who will positively die.

Be Seeing You,

Chris