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The State Department has tossed merit out as a criterion for promotion within America’s diplomatic corps and replaced it with wokeness.With a war in Ukraine and challenges to U.S. leadership around the world, there is no shortage of possibilities for skilled diplomats to pursue America’s interests abroad. So it is particularly disturbing that the Biden administration has just tossed merit out as a criteria for promotion within America’s diplomatic corps and replaced it with wokeness. For decades, the State Department has chosen its diplomats through the Foreign Service Officer Test, a grueling gauntlet that begins with a challenging, objective, written...

There was a missing person in yesterday’s testimony in the “impeachment inquiry”: George Soros.  One person who noticed was Joe DiGenova, who brought up the involvement of the Hungarian-born billionaire yesterday on Lou Dobbs’s Fox Business Network show, only to be attacked viciously for daring to mention He Who Must Not Be Named, on Mediaite by Reed Richardson, who called it a “bonkers conspiracy.” The husband-and-wife Trump defense team of Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing appeared on Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight to push an outlandish conspiracy theory about Ukraine, baselessly alleging that left-wing billionaire George Soros “controls a large part of the foreign service part of the...

{snip} "...I have taken an unscientific survey among my colleagues, whom you reference, about whether I should resign. The laughter told me everything I needed to know. It also underscores the fragile nature of this moment. As for my sons, active-duty naval officers whom you also call out, I honor their courageous service each time I salute the Marine guards protecting our large embassy compound. Their words when asked if I should resign are unprintable." Sincerely, Jon M. Huntsman

Count me as irritable on the subject, but President Obama's imperious habit of suggesting that American diplomats work for him is offensive to democratic sensibilities. In the second presidential debate last fall, when the Benghazi matter came up, the president responded: "Well, let me ... talk about our diplomats, because they serve all around the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation [sic]. And these aren't just representatives of the United States; they're my representatives. I send them there, oftentimes into harm's way. I know these folks, and I know their families. So nobody's more concerned...

1959 memo lists government regulations for Yeti hunting. Really. If you're planning to hit the Himalayas in search of an Abominable Snowman, you better be ready to do things by the book. At least, that'd be the case if you were conducting your search in 1959. These days, if you head out in search of a Yeti, you'll probably get a lot of giggles and funny looks, but back in 1959, the American Embassy in Kathmandu was taking such expeditions seriously. In a memo issued on Nov. 30 of that year, the embassy listed three specific regulations for Yeti searches...

Get your arms around this one, Americans. Obama's Deputy Special Coordinator in the State Department’s Office of Middle East Transition, Mark Ward, held a seminar with two notorious Muslim Brothherood groups, the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Ward stood side by side with speakers who advocate violent jihad. What was he doing there? Recruiting. This is beyond infiltration. This is a stealth coup. Ward stood with Jamal Badawi. At interfaith events Jamal Badawi. is presented as a scholarly visitor from Canada - a Professor of Business Mathematics at St Johns University in Halifax....

Foreign Service officers are firing back at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's charges that some State Department employees are not working in the best interest of the country. In a written statement, the American Foreign Service Association said Thursday the Texas governor's comments "reflect a serious misunderstanding" of the role of Foreign Service officers "in promoting American interests overseas." In a radio program this week with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, Perry said, "I'm not sure our State Department serves us well." ....Perry added that Congress might have to take action to ensure the nation's diplomatic corps is doing work...

This year's 231st Marine Corps Birthday Ball will be held on Saturday Nov 11 from 1800 - 0300 at the Inter-Continental Hotel (across the street from the U.S. Embassy). The ball is THE event of the year for the Embassy; it's not only a great time, but also a very special event for the Marines. (Ed. Note: The U.S. Marine Corps celebrates its birthday on November 10 because on November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress voted to raise two battalions of Continental Marines. The history buffs among us will be pleased to learn that the November date was chosen...

A veteran State Department employee contends that a month-long trip he took to Israel more than two decades ago has contributed to the suspension of his security clearance, stalling and perhaps ending his career in the foreign service. [snip] Mr. Hirsch said the story about him being a paratrooper deserved to be checked out, but could have been quickly resolved. The seemingly open-ended inquiry into his life and an agent's questions about whether the Maryland native could automatically become an Israeli citizen because he is a Jew have led the diplomat to conclude that he is the victim of religious...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2006 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today highlighted the importance of promoting a more cooperative working relationship between American diplomats and the U.S. military in order to achieve global objectives. "Over the past 15 years, as violent state failure has become a greater global threat, our military has borne a disproportionate share of post-conflict responsibilities because we have not had the standing civilian capability to play our part fully," she said in a speech at Georgetown University here. "This was true in Somalia, in Haiti, in Bosnia, in Kosovo and it is still partially true in...

Thank you very much. Thank you President DeGioia for that wonderful introduction. Thank you. Happy for that great start to this session. I 'd like to thank the Board of Trustees and say how pleased I am to be here at Georgetown University's distinguished School of Foreign Service. I just have to recognize my friend, Andrew Natsios, who's sitting in the front row, even if he did leave us to come to Georgetown. He said he was doing it because this is an institution that he loves dearly. You've got a fine man and you're going to have a fine...

US moves diplomats out of Europe Rice said the US must be "where the action is" The US is to reduce the number of its diplomats posted to Europe, and will send more to other countries, including China, India, Nigeria and Lebanon. "America must begin to reposition our diplomatic forces around the world," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. She said it was an anomaly that the US had the same staff levels in Germany as in India, more than 10 times the size. She said the redeployment would help foster democratic and economic change. Ms Rice told...

Rhymes with Dubya: The President and His CriticsThe President has often pointed out that the Iraq War is but one theatre in the over-all War on Terror. When his critics hear this, all they hear is a sad attempt to justify a huge mistake. A mistake that has distracted the U.S. from what should be its main goal: the destruction of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. To these critics, the policies of the Bush Administration are not only wrong, they are downright dangerous, adding to our insecurity rather than diminishing it. A good example of this type of...

Releasing a signed letter denouncing President Bush on the same day that the 9/11 Commission issued its much-publicized interim report last week, 26 former diplomats and retired military brass gained very little traction in their bid to knock the President. What people missed is a bunch of disgruntled ex-diplomats who amply demonstrate the deeply ingrained biases of the Foreign Service— or more to the point, the people who comprise the vast majority of Bush's current foreign policy team. Common sense would dictate that the President of the United States would have the ability to shape his entire administration, including his...

FOREIGN SERVICE FIREFIGHT AN FSO DESCRIBES A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH IRAQI INSURGENTS ON THE ROAD FROM BAGHDAD TO NAJAF. BY PHILIP S. KOSNETT March 5, 2004. We were southbound on the main highway from Baghdad to the Coalition Provisional Authority provincial headquarters in Najaf late on a Friday afternoon. Our three-car convoy carried six American personnel and a sixman Salvadoran personal security detachment from a Spanish/Salvadoran base in the city. By agreement with the Salvadoran commander, his U.S.trained personal security team was assigned fulltime to protect us. The Cuscatlan Battalion, based in Najaf, is the best in the Salvadoran...

Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. The former US diplomats complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends". They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. 'Great danger' They were...

Progress in Iraq more rapid than portrayed in mida, Austinite says Lewis Lucke had heard from his wife, Joy, and their friends in Texas that the news media's view of events in Iraq was bleak. But the 52-year-old foreign service officer, who is directing the multibillion-dollar reconstruction of Iraq, wasn't really prepared for just how bleak when he returned home to Austin this week for a five-day visit, his first since May. "There's just an incredible amount of productive stuff going on over there, with a lot of Iraqi participation," he said. "To come here and see it portrayed as...

<p>Former ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke entered the State Department debate last week, attacking former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and defending Foggy Bottom. But being a product of the Foreign Service himself, Mr. Holbrooke appears unwilling to address the real issue: the State Department's corrosive culture.</p>

A career Foreign Service officer and Army Reserves colonel has resigned from the State Department in protest over several foreign and domestic Bush administration policies. Ann Wright, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, sent a letter of resignation Wednesday to Secretary of State Colin Powell, telling him that this is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an administration of the United States. Wright wrote her letter five weeks ago and delayed sending it in the hopes the administration would avert a...