"We have brought to Iraq the worst of America - our bureaucrats..." So says veteran Republican operative Manuel Miranda, as reported here by ABC News.
In what ABC News terms a "confidential memo," Miranda also says that the there are "scores" of his counterparts in Iraq who share the same opinions, "each from the vantage point of their own expertise and particular experience in the Embassy," and whose names he said he was willing to share with Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
In the ten page memo Miranda first carefully enumerates all the people and efforts whom he does not fault, then proceeds to lay a range of faults squarely on the State Department and Foreign Service.
After characterizing the work of State and Foreign Service personnel as "an embarrassment," "incomprehensible," "willfully negligent if not criminal," and showing "complete lack of strategic forethought," he goes on to say, "The waste of taxpayer funds resulting from such mismanagement is something that only a deeply entrenched bureaucracy with a unionized attitude, like the Foreign Service and Main State, could find acceptable."
One can take his use of "unionized attitude" as proof of his Republican bona fides, which we can only hope serve to enhance the credibility with which his superiors regard his assessment.
The litany of criticism continues: "misguided," "inflexibility and the inability to understand alternative management principles," "inclination to make excuses and...blame others," "a bureaucratic imitation of the Keystone cops," "gripping culture of excused inaction," "ham-fisted," and "I was ashamed for my country."
The full ten page memo is located here.
Back story:
There seems also to be a backstory that hasn't fully emerged about this "confidential memo" having found its way to public view. The ABC News story ends:
While on Capitol Hill, Miranda was embroiled in a controversy when he obtained a confidential memorandum written by Senate Democrats and leaked it the press. Democrats accused Miranda of hacking into their computer systems. Miranda said the Democratic staffers had left the memo on a computer server accessable [sic] to all Senate staffers.
It would seem that someone may have exacted payback in making this memo of Miranda's public. That, or perhaps he arranged for it to become public himself.
Come, transparency.
Cross posted on BureaucracyBlog.com.