Foggy Bottom Whiners

Given the sacrifices of our brave soldiers which we'll be remembering tomorrow, this is simply disgusting:

There are supposedly 48 slots open in the embassy of the United States in Iraq for the next year and there aren't the volunteers in the State Department to fill them. At what was billed as a "town meeting" of approximately 300 concerned employees, one staff member, a Mr. Jack Croddy, was quoted as saying this assignment was "potentially a death sentence."

If one considers three State Department employees reportedly killed in four and a half years adequate evidence of this "death sentence," you would have to agree with Mr. Croddy. Of course, on a statistical basis one might be equally endangered in many other supposedly safe employments. But to clear up the three deaths: One is said to be an embassy political officer (possibly a CIA case officer on assignment) and the other two were State Department security personnel. Heroes all!

The State Department job in Baghdad and throughout Iraq certainly is different from many other postings around the world and (in the best of times) it would be hoped they could have been filled with willing volunteers rather than "draftees." This is not a new problem. It existed in the late 1960's in Vietnam. It was essentially an anti-war statement then and it's the same today.

Places like the Sudan, Lebanon, Colombia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are just a few of the key and difficult posts, in which Foreign Service officers do not demand special treatment and hold "town meetings" to whine about their possible assignment. But now for being assigned to Iraq there is this demand that a decades old regulation be rescinded that gives State the power to order its FSO's anywhere.

The Left is fond of sneering at the alleged "chickenhawks" on the Right; far better a chickenhawk than a plain ol' chicken anyday. Chickens in the State Department imperil every American. And, worse came to worst, does anyone have any doubt how quickly these cowards would seek and find employ with whatever foreign government ultimately managed to conquer America?

Disgusting.