With too few Foreign Service Officers volunteering to work in Iraq, the State Department is considering mandatory rotations. Apparently, this led to a "town hall meeting" in Foggy Bottom yesterday where FSOs complained about 'possible death sentences' and PTSD.
Foreign Service officers swear an oath to serve wherever the secretary of state sends them, but no directed assignments have been ordered since the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War.Well, there's no time like the present.
A poll conducted this month by the American Foreign Service Association found that only 12 percent of officers "believe that . . . Rice is fighting for them," union president John K. Naland said at yesterday's meeting...That's the spirit of public service I like to see in America's diplomats. Who wouldn't be pissed off that America's chief diplomat is serving America's interests, rather than the interests of whining civil servants.
Back when I was in college, I considered going after a career as an FSO. (This was before I learned that the State Department was really a haven for Brooks Brothers-wearing Ivy-League easterners with absurd accents, not public school, public university kids from Arizona.) I decided against it when I saw that an FSO's duty is to represent his country's policy, regardless of his personal feelings. At the time, I felt that I couldn't feel comfortable signing on, knowing that future presidents could have policies I would find repugnant.
I hope the State Department enjoys a healthy round of resignations, and can subsequently find a way to attract people more interested in serving their country than in their own cushy sinecures.
(Via Power Line and Wizbang)
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