State Department faces Iraq call-up rebellion
The US State Department is facing an unprecedented rebellion by foreign service officers over a threat to force diplomats to accept postings in Iraq, the first large-scale “directed assignments” since the Vietnam War.
Tempers boiled over at an hour-long “town hall meeting” at the department last night, where several hundred diplomats vented their anger at the decision to approve the call-up and one veteran diplomat criticised it as a “potential death sentence”.
The United States is building its largest embassy anywhere on the banks of the Tigris but is still around 50 short of a target to fill 250 diplomatic posts in Iraq by next summer. It announced last Friday that it will require some diplomats – under threat of dismissal – to serve at the embassy in Baghdad or in reconstruction teams in outlying provinces.
Many at the meeting expressed serious misgivings about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to work in a war zone, where the embassy staff is largely confined to the protected Green Zone – especially since the department is reviewing the use of private security guards.
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Three State Department employees have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
There’s a rumor around town that Congressman Henry Waxman, who has been investigating security arrangements in Iraq, might decide to lead the next group of replacements going out to Baghdad, as a show of congressional support for those who serve the nation at the front.
However, there’s no confirmation or formal announcement.
Most observers rate this one doubtful, at best.
