Dear Mr. Bush,
I regret to inform you that I will not be taking the second part of the Foreign Service Exam this January. It was an honor to pass the first round and to be accepted into round two, although as fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker with an MA in International Studies, it was not totally unexpected. With your upcoming nomination of Condi Rice as your Secretary of State, though, I must rescind my scheduled test date. There is no way that I could, in good faith, work in a State Department so committed to the destruction of American diplomacy through sheer incompetence. I therefore resign my position as a future Foreign Service Officer of the United States.
With the expected resignation of Secretary Powell, I had hoped against hope that you would appoint someone who could offer you the same moderate perspective that he offered. True, I will admit, Ms. Rice accurately pointed out to you that, in fact,
Brazil does have black people, which somehow was an alternative perspective in your twisted world view. However, Mr. President, simply being familiar with demographics does not make one an acceptable choice for the position of Secretary of State.
The State Department is not meant to be run by sycophants. This opens the door to war crimes; to using Diplomacy as a military tool as opposed to a tool of resolution. I have no confidence that Ms. Rice will be able to do anything but continue to undermine the reputation of the United States abroad.
To be honest, Mr. President, it is also true that I don't want to move with my wife to start a family in some fortress in Central Asia where I stamp passports and dodge snipers for a living. However, I would do that without hesitation if the reward would be a safer world for all, Americans and others.
I realize that opting out of the second test may not seem like a great loss to you or your administration. However, if other area experts like myself begin to opt out of the system, the State Department will lose whatever little resemblance it has to a functioning diplomatic office, where alternative viewpoints are debated in good faith. You know what good faith is, don't you, Mr. President?
Yours Sincerely,
zenbowl