What Part of Service Doesn’t State’s Foreign Service Understand

Many Foreign Srvice Officers of the United States State Department are a disgrace both to the United States and to State. State's broader general incompetence and timidity in fully participating in all facets of the Iraq experience are blatant and well-documented.

Today, the Associated Press (Washington Post Link)reports that the so-called State Department Foreign Service Officers’ union and many of its members publicly admit they disregard their oath of service and of being officers in United States foreign policy. (An extended excerpt is below.)

In 2007, I’ve posted the following, which pretty well describes the lowlights:
Important Guest Post: Modern Foreign Policy Execution

State Department Doesn’t Leave Dock

“What if they threw a war and nobody came?”

State Dept.’s Thin Ranks

Interagency Coordination Requires Dems & Reps To Come Together

The AP report:

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."…

"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.

He and others directly confronted Foreign Service Director General Harry Thomas, who approved the move to "directed assignments" late last Friday to make up for a lack of volunteers willing to go to Iraq.

"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Crotty said. "I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?"

His remarks were met with loud and sustained applause from the approximately 300 diplomats at the meeting….

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged the session had been "pretty emotional" but praised Thomas for holding it. 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.

"It's a pretty sensitive topic and understandably, some people are going to have some pretty strong feelings about it," McCormack told reporters after the meeting. "Ultimately, our mission in Iraq is national policy, it is the foreign policy set out by the secretary as well as the president of the United States….

Under the new order, 200 to 300 diplomats have been identified as "prime candidates" to fill 48 vacancies that will open next year at the Baghdad embassy and in the provinces. Those notified have 10 days to accept or reject the position. If not enough say yes, some will be ordered to go.

Only those with compelling reasons, such as a medical condition or extreme personal hardship, will be exempt from disciplinary action. Diplomats forced into service in Iraq will receive the same extra hardship pay, vacation time and choice of future assignments as those who have volunteered.

More than 1,200 of the department's 11,500 Foreign Service officers have served in Iraq since 2003, but the generous incentives have not persuaded enough diplomats to volunteer for duty in Baghdad or with the State Department's provincial reconstruction teams.

CNN’s report adds the following comments from Foreign Service Director General Harry Thomas:

"We cannot shrink from our duty. We have all agreed to worldwide availability," Thomas said.

From now on, everyone in the Foreign Service would be required to serve one out of three tours in "hardship posts," he said.

For all those State personnel who serve honorably and bravely, and Americans who depend upon their executing our foreign policy, slackers at State should be sacked quickly.

Others agree: Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard comments, “I'm inclined to think we're better off with no diplomats that an embassy full of Crottys,” after reading this, reacting to this version of the AP article.