Washington "to order up to 50 diplomats to fill Iraq posts"

More details on the situationOct 29th, 2007 - 20:37:54

There have been no mass 'directed assignments' in the Foreign Service since 1969, when an entire class of 15 to 20 entry-level officers was sent to Vietnam.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR200710260241 7.html?hpid=topnews

The union representing U.S. diplomats has officially objected to the Iraq call-up. 'We believe, and we have told the secretary of state, that directing unarmed civilians who are untrained for combat into a war zone should be done on a voluntary basis,' said Steve Kashkett, vice president of the American Foreign Service Association. 'Directed assignments, we fear, can be detrimental to the individual, to the post, and to the Foreign Service as a whole.'

Kashkett said the association had contended in meetings with Rice and Thomas that a diplomatic draft is unnecessary and that 'thousands' of diplomats have volunteered for Iraq over the past five years. 'We're not weenies, we're not cowards, we're not cookie pushers in Europe,' he said. 'This has never been necessary in a generation.'

Thomas also praised the service and noted that more than 1,200 of 11,500 Foreign Service personnel have already served in what has become the largest U.S. embassy in history. But the embassy's sheer size and the truncated, one-year diplomatic tours there have strained the service. The embassy and other U.S. diplomatic outposts in Iraq employ about 6,000 people, including several hundred Foreign Service officers, other State Department specialists, American contractors, third-country nationals and Iraqi hires.

The number of diplomatic positions in Iraq has increased every year since the embassy was opened in 2004. The expansion of Provincial Reconstruction Teams -- made up of diplomats who work with local communities outside of Baghdad -- from 10 to 25 last summer as part of President Bush's new strategy added another 30 Foreign Service personnel and many more outside contractors. Volunteers have filled all but about 50 slots that will be empty as of next summer, Thomas said.

At congressional hearings last summer, Kashkett testified that medical and psychiatric symptoms have become a growing problem for personnel serving in high-danger zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the constant need for personnel in Baghdad has drawn new dividing lines between those who have volunteered and those who have not.

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Large magazine article on new embassyOct 29th, 2007 - 20:40:57

Purchase the November Vanity Fair magazine, and read the lengthy article on the new U.S. monolith being constructed in the Green Zone, to be known as the U.S. Embassy. THIS is where the new diplomats would be housed. Foreign service people do not sign up to live exclusively in compounds where bombs are going off in the neighborhood, and they're afraid to venture out to do their jobs. The military expect to be posted without a choice in the matter, but diplomats expect some decent conditions at the least.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14993509

'The new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is shaping up to be the largest and most lavish embassy in the world. Tucked inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the $600-million compound will include grocery stores, a movie theater, tennis courts and a club for social gatherings.

In 'The Mega Bunker of Baghdad,' Vanity Fair reporter William Langewiesche describes the compound — and argues that it's not being built for diplomacy.'

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