Musicians and diplomats contrasted.

• Author: Mattox, Henry

Ran across a startling set of numbers the other day. According to comment in a George Will column, the introduction to the official U. S. Counterinsurgency Field Manual notes the American Army has more musicians in uniform than the U. S. Foreign Service has members. More bandsmen and -women than diplomats!

The source for that item of information, Sarah Sewall of Harvard, presumably made her comparison based on valid, authoritative information. Upon close inspection, however, it seems likely to have been based on outdated Foreign Service strength figures, numbers dating back when the FSO corps was smaller than it is today. Recent official Department of State Bureau of Human Resources information shows that the Foreign Service has close to 11,500 employees, officers and staff. This possibly adds up to three or four times the number of Army band musicians.

Whether fully supportable or not, the assertion nevertheless cries out for comment. At least it did for this startled reader, who happens to have served, at different times, of course, in an Army band long, long ago and also in the Foreign Service 'way back when. A disparity in strength of such marked contrast does, we might note, fit in with other aspects of the U. S. Government's areas of emphasis:

One of these is State's annual budget as a percentage of that of the Department of Defense--1.8 per cent, not including Defense's expenditures on Iraq or Afghanistan.

Another is the 25,000 American employees in the Pentagon--the building--compared with State's...