Several U.S. embassies around the world are considered "hardship postings," but for decades enough foreign service officers have volunteered for those postings that embassies have not lacked qualified staff. The State Department has not had to resort to "directed assignments"—in other words, assigning diplomats to postings whether or not they want to go there—since the Vietnam war. Until now.
The Washington Post reports this morning that yesterday there was a "town hall meeting" called by Henry K. Thomas Jr, the Director General of the Foreign Service. The diplomats in attendance weren’t too happy about the new policy of using directed assignments to fill the 50 open slots at the diplomatic monstrosity known as the Baghdad embassy.
One of the foreign service officers characterized service in Iraq "a potential death sentence" and said "[a]ny other embassy in the world would be closed by now."
Another talked about how upon returning from service in Basra, she discovered she had post-traumatic stress disorder, but that the State Department wouldn’t authorize treatment for it.
And there was this:
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, which was first reported by the Associated Press.
"That's their right. But they're wrong," said Thomas, who appeared to grow increasingly agitated as the questioning became more pointed.
"Sometimes, if it's 88 to 12, maybe the 88 percent are correct," Naland said.
"Eighty-eight percent of the country believed in slavery at one time. Was that correct?" Thomas responded, saying he was "insulted." Rice is fighting hard for them, he said.
There you go! Disagree with the leadership in overwhelming numbers, and you’re like people who supported slavery! Isn’t it obvious! Add in the nice trick of invoking slavery in defense of a African-American Secretary of State, and you’re almost to the point of complaining that the staff are trying to conduct a political lynching of poor, poor Condi Rice.
To the claims that George W. Bush and crew have wrecked the military, maybe it’s the time we added the charge of wrecking the Foreign Service.