Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty; Top State Dept. Officials Face Angry Questions

[BurtWorm]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103101626.html?hpid=topnews


By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 1, 2007; Page A01

Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday criticized senior State Department officials over a decision to order some of them to take assignments at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs.

At a town hall meeting in the department's main auditorium attended by hundreds of diplomats, some of them challenged the new policy in unusually blunt terms. They also took issue with the size of the embassy -- the biggest in U.S. history -- and the lack of training they received before being sent to serve in a war zone. One woman said she returned from a tour in Basra, Iraq, with post-traumatic stress disorder only to find that the State Department would not authorize medical treatment.

Some asked how diplomacy could be practiced when the embassy itself, inside the fortified Green Zone, is under frequent fire and officials can travel outside only under heavy guard. Service there was "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause.

Harry K. Thomas Jr., the director general of the Foreign Service, who called the meeting, responded curtly. "Okay, thanks for your comment," he said, declaring the town hall meeting over.

In notices e-mailed to Foreign Service officers around the world late Friday night, Thomas wrote that State had decided to begin "directed assignments" to fill an anticipated shortfall of 48 diplomats in Iraq next summer. Separate e-mail letters were sent to about 250 officers selected as qualified for the posts. If enough of them did not volunteer, the letters said, some would be ordered to serve there.

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