Diplomats working for the State Department may soon be FORCED to go to Iraq

[ck4829]

Wanna work for the State Department? Ok, guess where you're going...

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week ordered that U.S. diplomatic positions in Iraq must be filled before any other State Department openings in Washington or overseas are made available, raising the possibility that soon the agency will be forced to order its employees to serve in Iraq.

“It is my fervent hope that we will continue to see sufficient numbers of Foreign Service and Civil Service employees volunteering for Iraq service, but we must be prepared to meet our requirements in any eventuality,” Rice said in a message to employees.

The move to fill Iraq jobs first, which Rice called “unprecedented” in the cable, represents a further tightening of the rules for filling jobs at the State Department because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last summer, Rice ordered that hardship posts – including Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots – should be filled first.

Rice’s message was sent more than two weeks after Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, sent her a cable with an urgent plea for more and better staff. “Simply put, we cannot do the nation’s most important work if we do not have the department’s best people,” Crocker said in a May 31 cable."

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/17398838.htm

[Dhalgren]

1. Any State Dept. personnel who is not sufficiently Bushie will be sent first.

This was the suggestion from the Justice Dept....

[Solo_in_MD]

2. So What...Diplomatic Service is like the Army...you go where you are told

Seriously, this is just whining and nothing more