Comment on: "Iraq, the Foreign Service, and Duty.".

AuthorCotter, Michael W.

In his recent editorial "Iraq, the Foreign Service, and Duty," our distinguished editor makes several assumptions about today's Foreign Service with which I disagree. First, he suggests that the principle of worldwide availability has been eroded since the "good old days." I would suggest that the principle was never applied equitably in the first place. Granted there was no open assignment process. Instead, whom one knew and one's place in the hierarchy generally determined the location and type of assignment one received. Assignments to Vietnam were not spread equitably across the Foreign Service. Over the years the principle has certainly been eroded through a process of changing medical standards (once upon a time people suffering from asthma and other diseases, or with physical conditions limiting where they can be assigned could not enter the Service, something no longer true), more attention given to family values, and a deteriorating security environment for the Foreign Service globally.

Second, the editor implies that today's Foreign Service Officers and staff are not willing to take on dangerous assignments. That is demonstrably untrue. Foreign Service staff have served, continue to serve, and have lost their lives in the service of their country in places like Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, the Congo, and elsewhere. He quotes a statement by David Passage, but focuses on the first phrase, i.e., assignments that "needlessly endanger lives. The full sentence ends with "...under conditions in which there can be no reasonable expectation of positive gain." And this is the critical issue regarding current assignments to Iraq. Can FSOs really perform the functions for which they are trained and equipped in today's Iraq? I, along with many other current and former FSOs, question whether they can. Isolated in the "Green Zone," unable to travel without a large armed security force, risking the lives of contacts by the very fact that they are embassy contacts, and forced to do most business by telephone, I wonder how they accomplish anything at all. What work there can possibly be for over 200 officers, especially since the State Department doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of overseeing the activities of its numerous contract personnel in the country, is unclear. The same holds true for FSOs assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Teams, many of which work in conditions preventing them from having the impact they should. The editor...

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