Diplomats ‘upset over forced postings to Iraq.’
Diplomats ‘upset over forced postings to Iraq.’
In a “contentious” hour-long “town hall meeting” today, 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.’” The AP reports on the exchange:
“Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone,” said Jack Crotty, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces. [...]
“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?”
“You know that at any other (country) in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point,” Crotty said to loud and sustained applause from the about 300 diplomats who attended the meeting in a large State Department auditorium.
UPDATE: ABC News has the audio.
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You hacks. Support the Chimperor’s surge or else.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:59 pmHaven’t heard any of these diplomats worry about the children and families of the soldiers, not even those that are outside the safety of the “Green Zone”. Only thing is the diplomats can quit, the soldiers have to go anyway.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:00 pmFigures. The same would happen with an overall draft. Suddenly, no one would support this war. It’s ok to talk about this war theoretically, when it’s someone else’s theoretical ass being killed (happens all the time on this forum), but when it’s your ass suddenly the war doesn’t sound like such a good idea. The same would happen if GWB/Cheney had to serve, or their children. War is only fair & just if someone else is doing the fighting… and dying.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pmhahaha…..those poor chickenhawks
i guess these republican princesses are going to have to decide between breaking a nail and quitting.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pmMaybe our trolls will be the next group sent to serve in Iraq. They all think war is the only answer they might as well serve.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:04 pmi thought it was all daisies and rainbows in the greenzone….it’s not?
according to graham and mccain it’s just like downtown america….
5 rugs for $5!!!!!!!!!!!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:06 pmhmmm, I thought it was getting really really safe over there now??
Isn’t the surge working? Why are these people so apprehensive about going there? Are they not true patriots??
Ho hum, just another slap in the face of Bushco’s unreality…carry on.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:10 pmBut I thought the killings of Diplomats was way down…
October 31st, 2007 at 5:10 pmespecially in the green zone.
“Maybe our trolls will be the next group sent to serve in Iraq. They all think war is the only answer they might as well serve.”
and miss their senior year of high school? not a chance!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:10 pmI see lots of diplomats suddenly applying to Business School.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:11 pmAll that money spent on that embassy in the green zone…
and no one wants to go there.
Gee!! Is there anywhere else we might have spent that money better?
Let me see?!!?!
Art in New Orleans.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:13 pmHah!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:13 pmThe diplomats shot a hole in the story of safety in the green zone.
Even Rice had to say it is not safe there – but what have they been telling us prior to this?
The public is distanced from this war because most don’t have a soldier in Iraq; diplomats are distanced from the war because they deal in the business of international relations. The diplomats have now felt the desperation of the White House and it suddenly got personal. Makes one speculate that if a draft was reinstituted, the war might be over in 30 days.
Gee – that’s not very diplomatic of them! Speaking frankly and all that.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:20 pmbut you can buy 5 rugs for $5!!!!!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:20 pmi heard it was like MALL OF AMERICA!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:22 pmWhy don’t they make it mandatory that Congress and the President stay there for a few months out of the year? Let’s see how long the war lasts then.
Jeeze. It’s not like Bush needs diplomats these days, but if the diplomatic corps quits or gets killed, there’ll be no one left to do the paperwork.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:22 pmOh, so now they want to “cut and run.”
October 31st, 2007 at 5:26 pmlol
October 31st, 2007 at 5:32 pmI agree with everyone’s anger here. But, I think it’s misplaced.
These are career diplomats. They aren’t the Republican Party. The ambassador and MAYBE one or two other people in each embassy are political appointees. The rest are just workin’ folk like you and me.
It’s these people who are being forced to go. The political hacks are happy to go.
Just wanted to clarify that.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:32 pmJust grab your Blackwater escort and be an accessory to murder. That’s what good diplomats do.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:32 pmNow all of the sudden this is a problem. Not one of these people has stepped up to blow the whistle on any of the CRIMES I’m sure they’ve either witnessed or they have knowledge of going on here, and have all probably been yessing this thing to death all along….until it’s their turn to go. Boo frickin’ hoo–
October 31st, 2007 at 5:34 pmnews flash, people, lots of guys in the military thought it was a “job” too.
Hey, if I were a diplomat, I wouldn’t want to serve either, knowing I was gonna be guarded by a crazed, muderous, Blackwater mercenary who wouldn’t be prosecuted if he turned on me and killed me!
{:-)
October 31st, 2007 at 5:35 pmFunny how nobody minds sending our military into “death sentence” areas, but everybody balks at the idea of going themselves. What’s wrong with this picture? Don’t our soldiers deserve to live, too?
Oh — they’re VOLUNTEERS. They OFFERED to go into “death sentence” areas. Right. It’s OK if we use them for battle fodder.
(sarc/off)
My take on this? If ANYONE is going into a “death sentence” area, there had better be a damn good reason. If our diplomats can’t find one, then maybe we need to ask why our soldiers are there.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:35 pmOT – Ecuador wants military base in Miami
NAPLES (Reuters) – Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador’s Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renew Washington’s lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.
“We’ll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami — an Ecuadorean base,” Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.
“If there’s no problem having foreign soldiers on a country’s soil, surely they’ll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States.”
Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a “dimwit”.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:35 pmthey can cry me a frickin’ river.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:36 pmOH GOD, HELP US !!!
ITS A DEATH SENTENCE !
hahahahahahahaha
thats F-ing A Right ! its a death sentence……
welcome to BushWorld….
Your in the real world now huh?
and now you know how the troops feel
not to mention 25 million innocent iraqis
October 31st, 2007 at 5:37 pmPutting your life in danger is for the troops! Not us Regency educated diplomats!
Let the political hacks come home when the troops come home.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:43 pmOh, so now they speak up because it just might be their butts being blown up…typical Fascist Chickenhawk talk.
Buck Fush
October 31st, 2007 at 5:44 pmComment by 2MillionLightYearsToAndromeda — October 31, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
I heard this a few days ago and wondered why he did not request a base in Fredericksburg, VA. Perhaps the chilly winters turned him off.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:48 pmAwwwww, a “death sentence”…?
Oh, please – you exaggerate! Things are going GREAT in Iraq! Get out, go shopping!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:48 pm.
.
.
Classic case of ‘hoist by their own petard’, eh…? HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
The media is pulling these phony diplomats out of the blue. Ought to talk to the real diplomats; they want to be over there.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pmCall them a WHAMBULANCE!!! AND please – TAKE THAT RICE PERSON WITH YOU!!!!
WHAAAA…..WHAAAAA….WHAAAAA….
October 31st, 2007 at 5:52 pmThey’re lucky they’re at least TOLD where they’re going and being PAID. Not so for the poor bastards who’re renditioned to Uzbekistan to be boiled in oil.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:59 pmFor all those who are dissing the career diplomats of the State Department — please don’t. This War on Iraq was none of their doing. The responsibility for everything that has happened falls on the shoulders of the political appointees or “elected” officials, such as Bush, Cheney, and Condasleeza for starters, and Rumsfeld.
This would be the perfect time for the chicken s*its to do more than talk the talk. Since the Middle East is such a powder keg, it might behoove Bushie to send Condi there TDY for, let’s say, the rest of his term in office. That way, she can provide a “hands on” approach to governing the workings of the State Department. It will surely save the taxpayers money if she just stays there instead of going on all these trips of hers.
While they’re at it, they could also send all of the other PNAC/AEI/AIPAC chicken s*its who have encouraged this mess, continue to push for our staying there and are now suggesting we “bomb” Iran — like Podhoretz, Kristol, Hadley, Addington et al. Since they seem to think everything is hunky dory — they should be more than willing to do their part.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:01 pmOught to talk to the real diplomats; they want to be over there.
Comment by ignatov — October 31, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Names? Proof?
As if.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:02 pmYou know, I betcha Condi Rice is going to regret that little snip about how dangerous the Green Zone is. It just cuts to the quick of any claim of how well we’re doing.
For that matter, organizationally, isn’t Rice over the diplomats. I can imagine a lot of interest in her saying how dangerous it is while trying to send them.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:03 pmThis is just too good. Diplomats being forced to do something other than schmooz. They need to go over to Iraq, because their leader has told them it is sunshine and flowers, so much progress why worry? A death sentence, Really ?
October 31st, 2007 at 6:05 pm34 – Helen Rainier – I see your point…
However – the Bush administration is so extremely politicized that I’m afraid I don’t buy that “don’t dis the career diplomats” stuff any more.
By this time – nearly 7 years in – I believe that ANYONE who does not toe the Bushparty line has been weeded out – and only the graduates of Regent and Liberty U remain.
And as far as I’m concerned, send ALL those braindead lockstepping morons to Iraq. Let them put their money where their flapping mouths are.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:10 pm#34 I agree with Helen Rainier. These are career people serving in nominally non-partisan positions. I’m sure that a lot of them are praying for the Bush regime to end, just like lots of career lawyers at Justice. And I’m sure that at least some of those who are forced to serve in Iraq will be selected as punishment for not being loyal enough.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:16 pmOn the other hand, they have to option to resign, and they should resign if they are posted to Iraq against their wishes.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:17 pmSend Cheney.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:27 pmBushco should be very careful. They might end up scaring their toadies enough to, gasp, tell the truth!
October 31st, 2007 at 6:37 pmI’m an Iraq vet and I say, “tough shit.” If they don’t want the job, they can go to the civilian sector. But to have the nerve to say “what about our children” when nearly 4,000 troops have given their lives for this misbegotten war is appalling. I guess you only join the State Department for the crab Louis at the embassy in Paris.
And lest you think this is some kind of back-handed defense of the administration — what happens when a bunch of diplomats say, “no, thanks” if ordered to go to Darfur or some other place with a humanitarian catastrophe? Oh, sorry, it’s icky there. They have diseases ‘n’ stuff. And the people are so poor. But if you want to force me to go to, like, London or Tokyo, I might be cool with that.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:39 pm#39 – non partisan, well maybe some however, others are given the jobs for party loyalty, wish I could remember the name recently that has been a Bush family friend for years given a post. I agree, at least they can resign unlike the military who are given a stop loss and kept forever.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:54 pmWhat a bunch of pussies. Who is raising the kids of the dead GI’s? How many single parents has George’s screwed-up, made-up war made in the last few years? Volunteers can die but not me oh no. I’ve got an ivy league education and plans. Let the Volunteers die. Duty is a word these drones should learn. You go when it is your duty and the duty of the state department is to represent the US overseas. For cryin’ out loud there is a 100 acre campus and a 141 million dollar facility for them to live in. So what if there is incoming go to the bunker dumb ass and do your duty otherwise. You sorry ass war dodgers…can’t even do the honorable thing when your job calls for it. Let the serfs die I’ve got places to go, other than Iraq, and big important things to do. Forget all of you pinstriped, whinin’ pond scum.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:31 pmHey don’t worry, I will pick a color for our ’support our diplomats’ magnetic ribbons and sell them to all the SUV owners – what’s not to like?
October 31st, 2007 at 8:24 pmWow — an awful lot of people seem to think everything and everyone in the government is a Bush appointee.
Most of the people in question are career government employees, and most are likely liberal democrats who disagree with the war. Think about it, folks: how often has this administration given a damn about diplomacy? How does it help our country to lose qualified and capable diplomats, when that’s likely EXACTLY what the Bush administration would want?
The bottom line, guys, is that NO ONE should be over there. Adding more people who shouldn’t be there won’t solve anything.
How would you feel if you were told you have to support the Bush administration AND put your life on the line doing it, or lose your job?
October 31st, 2007 at 9:25 pmAnd for those of you who are saying “it’s their job, just like the soldiers had to go!”: it is generally NOT part of the job for diplomats to be sent to an active war zone to staff an embassy, for a number of reasons (including the fact that diplomats really can’t do much good under those circumstances). In fact, it’s almost unheard of. Soldiers, by contrast, work a job that BY DEFINITION is about putting your life on the line and potentially killing the other guys.
There’s literally no comparison. Hardship appointments happen all the time in diplomacy. War zone deployments do not.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:29 pmLeftside Annie – the government is huge. It consists of around 1.5 million people, and the vast majority have been there longer than the Bush administration. In fact, the majority are liberal Democrats.
The government is too large for any administration to micromanage most of it. So it’s really not true that everyone who doesn’t support Bush has been “weeded out”. I’m speaking as a government employee, here — my co-workers and I complain about the idiot in the White House constantly.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:34 pmGood!!
Now if they only would gather all on here and other sites, tv/ radio shows, bars, boardrooms, country clubs, confederate shooting clubs, and all who support WAR, WAR , WAR, but have never been over there, then and ONLY then would there be an end to all of this BS.
Now there idiots want to cry about being FORCED to go to Iraq instead of cheerleading from the comforts of home and Faux News studios on Sunday’s.
I have NO sympathy, NONE!!!
RIP
October 31st, 2007 at 10:14 pmSGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq
did they say “several hundred diplomats”???….what are these several hundred people going to do? – will they be posted to all provinces of the country or will they just tuck themselves away in the new embassy palace?….what is their purpose?….counter insurgent anti terrorist experts? – bomb dismatlers??….or just another several hundred million dollars of tax payers money putting more troops in harm’s way
October 31st, 2007 at 10:45 pmSo it is better to support a dictator than lose your job ? People in Germany thought the same thing, they ignored the smell from the furnaces as long as the Brown Shirts didn’t come for them. But, after the last person is taken, who will protect you ?
My belief that this is just politics and will turn for the better is getting less and less.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:50 pmHey Misc, many soldiers joined the military because they couldn’t afford to go to college and better themselves any other way. And they didn’t have the opportunity to say I don’t want to go. All the diplomats were told they could either go or they could quit. That’s a choice they get to make. See the difference? Let them quit and see how the rest of the world gets by outside of the comfort of a government job where little is expected and the rewards are high.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:56 pmWho is supposed to staff the $141 million embassy boondoggle in Baghdad? If an embassy is open who is supposed to be there to do business? Don’t try to sell me on the fact that most of these people are career people. All the more reason for them to suck it up and get it done. As a taxpayer and more especially a veteran who has paid a price these precious people will never have to pay I want that GD embassy staffed and business goin’ on. Who will be there to open the doors and do the work? Keep the whiners in the states, the slackers there too, get some people who are going to do their work in an effective and professional manner. I guess that means the career people. All of sudden the green zone is unsafe after all the bullshit we’ve been fed by Gen. Betrayus and Georgie kegger boy. Shit in shit out folks.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:37 pmThese are the jobs-
Irag jobs
And, if you read the Foreign Service Officer suggested reading list (for the test), it’s a pretty liberal and well rounded world view. Most likely these guys are thoughtfull people that would rather not be part of a huge mistake.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:39 amreading list
I’m sure Condi isn’t aware how anti Bush that list reads.
Please pass the sweet and sour – KABOOM!
There’s no US diplomacy going on anywhere.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:24 amWell, well, well, now the diplomats know how are military feel. No one wants to be assigned to the death trap known as Iraq.
Republicans – the party of torture, death and deficits.
Signing off…. coffins
November 1st, 2007 at 7:40 amThese are the jobs-
Irag jobs
And, if you read the Foreign Service Officer suggested reading list (for the test), it’s a pretty liberal and well rounded world view. Most likely these guys are thoughtfull people that would rather not be part of a huge mistake.
reading list
I’m sure Condi isn’t aware how anti Bush that list reads.
Comment by flatfoot — November 1, 2007 @ 2:39 am
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That’s worth repeating. These people aren’t ambassadors or James Bond. They’re white collar analysts who received the position based mostly on merit.
I’ve taken the FSO exam and it is comprehensive and competitive as all hell. If I remember correctly I scored in the 91-94% percentile and I didn’t get a call back.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:53 am49 – Misc: I’m still not buying that argument.
Furthermore, I have absolutely NO sympathy for ANYONE who is willing to work for the Bushies, alleged “liberal democrats” or not.
If a hardass dose of reality – like being posted to a war zone – is what it takes to get people to recognize that this administration is a nothing more CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE – then it’s well worth it.
They don’t want to go to Iraq?
THEN QUIT. Let the Bushtoadies fend for themselves.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:13 pm