In the largest call-up of U.S. diplomats since the Vietnam War, the State Department is planning to order some of its personnel to serve at the American Embassy in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers.
Those designated “prime candidates'' - from 200 to 300 diplomats - will be notified Monday that they have been selected for one-year postings to fill the 40 to 50 vacancies expected next year.
They will have 10 days to accept or reject the position. If not enough say yes, some will be ordered to go to Iraq and face dismissal if they refuse, Harry Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service, said Friday.
“Starting Nov. 12, our assignments panel will assign people to Iraq,'' Thomas told reporters in a conference call. “Under our system, we have all taken an oath to serve our country, we have all signed (up for) worldwide availability.
“If someone decides ... they do not want to go, we will then consider appropriate action,'' he said. “We have many options, including dismissal from the Foreign Service.''
So if you're smart, highly educated and trained, and speak Arabic, you'll be fired. Even though we badly need people who are smart, highly educated and trained, and who speak Arabic.
If you're a soldier and you been there already, your view is tinged with the same realism, a realism apparently foreign to those who direct this war from offices in Washington.
Their experience in Sadiyah has left many of them deeply discouraged, by both the unabated hatred between rival sectarian fighters and the questionable will of the Iraqi government to work toward peaceful solutions.
Asked if the American endeavor here was worth their sacrifice -- 20 soldiers from the battalion have been killed in Baghdad -- Alarcon said no: "I don't think this place is worth another soldier's life."
While top U.S. commanders say the statistics of violence have registered a steep drop in Baghdad and elsewhere, the soldiers' experience in Sadiyah shows that numbers alone do not describe the sense of aborted normalcy -- the fear, the disrupted lives -- that still hangs over the city.
