As per ordered!
Yup, but the SURGE SUCCEEDED and EVERYTHING is GREAT in Iraq!
As a subtext, I saw Mourning Joe this morning and he was all pro war.
Ripping the dissenters at State, saying, "Hey, you guys signed up. What about our troops?"
He attacked the NWO tart Myka Brzenzski (Zbig's daughter) for even suggesting Iraq was not going well.
Joe was like, What are you saying?"
O.K., Joe, when are you going to suit up?
This country is over, my friend, because of the shit MSM!
Sig Heil! Long Live Bush's Militarism!!!
"Diplomats angry over forced posts in Baghdad; Say US plan puts them in danger" by Farah Stockman Boston Globe November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Angry US diplomats lashed out yesterday against a State Department plan that would send them to Iraq against their will, with one likening it to "a potential death threat" and another accusing the department of providing inadequate care to diplomats who have returned home traumatized.
At a rare, contentious meeting, foreign service officers told senior State Department officials that the move to fill vacancies in Baghdad puts them in danger, jeopardizes the well-being of their families, and could deplete the ranks of those willing to serve overseas at a critical time. Several diplomats said privately they would resign rather than accept orders to serve in Iraq. The president of their union pointed out that about 2,000 State Department personnel have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, greatly taxing the ranks of the 11,000-member core.
"We have had four years of people volunteering to Iraq, and as the size of the mission has increased, demand has outstripped supply," said John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association, in an interview after the meeting.
Government will contract out more Blackwaters then, right?
Or hire illegals to do the jobs Americans don't want?
The State Department has struggled to find Foreign Service volunteers to fill 48 of the 252 diplomatic posts that will become vacant next summer in Baghdad as well as other Iraqi provinces. To solve the problem, the department decided on mandatory service in Baghdad if too few volunteers step forward. Yesterday, at a packed meeting to discuss the plan, foreign service officers spoke out passionately against it, an unusual display of internal dissent
Can a draft be far behind, kiddies?
Jack Crotty, a senior Foreign Service officer who has worked overseas, told his superiors that being forced to serve in Iraq is a "potential death sentence and you know it."
"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers," he said, according to the Associated Press, "but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment."
Rachel Schnelling, a diplomat who served in Basra, Iraq, got a standing ovation when she said the State Department had failed to care for diplomats after they returned home suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
"I would just urge you, now that we are looking at compulsory service in a war zone, that we have a moral imperative as an agency to take care of people who . . . come back with war wounds," she said at the meeting, according to the AP. "I asked for treatment and I didn't get any of it."
I smell a DRAFT!
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was not at the meeting convened by Harry Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Sean McCormack, her press secretary, said that the decision to draft diplomats to Iraq came with Rice's support, and that the move was not taken "lightly."
"Understandably, people are going to have some pretty strong feelings about it," he said. "But ultimately our mission in Iraq is national policy. We as Foreign Service officers swore an oath, and we agreed to certain things when we took these jobs. Part of them is to be available for worldwide assignments. They all agreed to that."
So Sig Heil and get goose-stepping to Iraq, Stater!
On Friday evening, the department sent notices to between 200 and 300 Foreign Service officers informing them that they had been selected as possible candidates to serve in Baghdad or on provincial reconstruction teams if there are not enough volunteers. Many officers were upset to read media reports of the new assignment plan over the weekend before they received the department notifications at work on Monday.
And they read it in the paper!!!!
Can yoou imagine how YOU would feel if that was at your job, Amurkns?
Read the plant was closing in the paper before management tells you?
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, ambitious diplomats flocked to posts there, which were seen as tickets for promotion. But as the danger grew, and as Baghdad became the largest US embassy in the world, filling posts in Baghdad became more difficult.
A plum assignment turned to you-know-what!
The so-called surge of troops in Iraq, ordered by President Bush this year, has also stretched the foreign service ranks. Ambassador Ryan Crocker asked for 80 additional positions to increase the US diplomatic presence alongside the increased troops in Provincial Reconstruction Teams and other posts.
Naland said it is "almost unprecedented" to force diplomats to serve in a war zone. "During the Vietnam War, Foreign Service officers were ordered to serve, but for everyone on active duty, this is brand new," he said.
Looks like Iraq becomes more like Vietnam everyday! And gets worse!
Although senior officials defended the plan, others contradicted McCormack's assertion that they had committed to be sent anywhere in the world.
"People didn't sign up for the foreign service to go get killed in the war zone," said a Washington-based State Department official who volunteered and served in Iraq during the invasion but does not want to return.
"In any other country, an embassy like that would be in evacuation status," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But, but, but... I was told the surge worked and the US was now winning!
Morale is not helped by news from colleagues in Baghdad who say inadequate security has kept them holed up in the Green Zone, unable to interact frequently with the Iraqi officials and ministries they are supposed to advise.
Rice announced shortly after becoming secretary of state that she would make promotions contingent on serving in difficult posts. But until this point, no one has ever been forced to choose between serving and resigning from the State Department.
Now they are! If it were me, "I quit!!!"
Diplomats, even those with critical Arabic language skills, were coaxed or prodded to do their time in Iraq. Former secretary of state Colin Powell was known to have personally called senior officials, or their spouses, to ask them to take posts in Baghdad.
Unless they were gay, then the service got rid of 'em!!
Over the years, however, this policy has created a rift between the State Department and the Pentagon, as senior military officials accuse the diplomatic arm of the government of failing to send enough personnel to work on the Iraq reconstruction teams. Conflicts have emerged within the State Department itself, as some senior officials pressed for a more aggressive policy of assisting the US-led mission in Iraq.
I am smelling a DRAFT, boys and girls, mothers and fathers!
Henry S. Ensher, a Foreign Service officer who served as director for political affairs in the Iraq office inside the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs argued in the March 2006 issue of the Foreign Service Journal that the State Department should "recognize that service in wartime necessitates a complete commitment by all its personnel."
So Sig Heil and get goose-stepping to Iraq, Stater!
"The Foreign Service is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the highest priority foreign-policy issue winning in Iraq because it has refused to take the one step that would guarantee it a key role, demonstrate seriousness of purpose to the military, and develop a cadre of true area specialists with extreme diplomacy skills," he wrote."
Yeah, this whole thing is the State Dept. employees fault!
Pfffffttttt!!!!!
"Foreign Service Officers Resist Mandatory Iraq Postings" by HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — Career Foreign Service officers at the State Department reacted angrily at a town hall meeting on Wednesday to the possibility that they might be forced to go to Iraq, putting senior Bush administration officials on the defensive.
Awwwww, a State Dept. Town Hall meeting!
To TELL YOU what you are going to do! Sig Heil!!!
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced just a few days earlier that the State Department would require some diplomats to serve at the American Embassy in Baghdad or on reconstruction teams in some of the country’s volatile provinces. Only those who can cite compelling reasons, like medical problems or extreme personal hardship, will be exempt from disciplinary action, including dismissal, if they turn down the assignment.
“It was an hourlong event, and for a brief period one or two speakers expressed very strongly held views,” the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said. “It’s a pretty sensitive topic and, understandably, some people are going to have some pretty strong feelings about it.”
Imagine how the American people are feeling, Sean.
We are writhing in discomfort and pain -- as if tortured!
During the meeting, one Foreign Service officer likened the Iraq order to a “potential death sentence,” The Associated Press reported. “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,” said the officer, who identified himself as Jack Croddy and once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces, The Associated Press reported. “I’m sorry, but basically that’s a potential death sentence, and you know it.”
The comments were directed at Harry Thomas, the Foreign Service director general. Ms. Rice did not attend the meeting, but her Iraq deputy, David Satterfield, was there.
Satterfield the Zionist Spy!
Strange how you NEVER HEAR about the Israeli Spy Scandal, huh?
“I certainly understand very much that this is extremely difficult for people who have not contemplated this kind of service,” Mr. Satterfield said in an interview. But, he added, “this is an expeditionary world. For better or worse, it requires an expeditionary service.”
Yeah, it's all an EXPEDITION!! A Great Adventure!!!!
Well, WHY DON'T YOU TAKE a POSTING then, Dave?
Many federal employees have refused repeated requests that they go to Iraq, while others have demanded that they be assigned only to Baghdad and not be sent outside its fortified Green Zone.
Mr. Satterfield maintained that State Department employees had volunteered in large numbers for difficult posts. But the new order underscores a fundamental problem at the department: Many of the employees who have signed up for Iraq have tended to be younger entry-level types, not experienced diplomats.
The reluctance of some Foreign Service employees to go to Iraq highlights a problem with the administration’s overall strategy for Iraq. It calls on American diplomats to take challenges on a scale unmatched anywhere else in the world, at a time when the lack of security on the ground outside the Green Zone makes it one of the last places people, particularly those with families, want to go.
Imagine living there, Amurkn!
And I WAS TOLD THE SURGE WORKED!!!
WTF?!?! MSM LIARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We may be reaching the end with them!
Mr. Satterfield said that the department had gotten volunteers for about 40 of the slots it needs to fill for Iraq. “There will be a relatively few number of positions that will actually need to be filled by directed assignments,” he said."
Oh, ow they are BACKTRACKING and saying we won't need that many diplomats after all!
By the fucking Zionist traitor to America to boot!!
What a fucking LYING GOVERNMENT and MSM!!!!!
You know what, readers?
I'm getting as MAD as HELL, and I 'm NOT GONNA BUY THEM ANYMORE!!!!!!!!
