State Department warns diplomats of compulsory Iraq duty

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

A similar call-up threat last year caused a revolt among foreign service officers who objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in the end the State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs.

Now, the State Department anticipates another staffing crisis.

"We face a growing challenge of supply and demand in the 2009 staffing cycle," the cable said, noting that more than 20 percent of the nearly 12,000 foreign service officers have already worked in the two major hardship posts — Iraq and Afghanistan — and a growing number have done tours in both countries.

As a result, the unclassified April 8 cable says, "the prime candidate exercise will be repeated" next year, meaning the State Department will begin identifying U.S. diplomats qualified to serve in Iraq and who could be forced to work there if they don't volunteer.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_embassy_5

---

and earlier today:

Rice vouches for diplomats' commitment
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 59 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday defended the commitment of the nation's diplomats, despite recent resistance by many foreign services officers to a proposal to require tours in Iraq.

Last fall, several hundred diplomats convened for an hour-long "town hall meeting" to discuss an order that would have mandated some service at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and outlying provinces. Some questioned the ethics of sending people against their will to a war zone, with one calling the forced assignments a "potential death sentence" to loud applause.

"I was deeply offended myself, and deeply sorry that these people who had self-selected into this town hall went out of their way, to my view, cast a very bad light on the foreign service," Rice told a House panel.

The State Department eventually found enough volunteers for the 48 vacancies, and the call-ups were never enforced. But the agency could face another round of protests as it opens up its "bidding cycle" this spring for jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan that will be vacated in the summer of 2010.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/rice_iraq_3

[Deep13]

1. Well coming from Rice, that really means...

...absolutely nothing.

The State Dept. knows its employees are civilians, right? They can't really be ordered to go anywhere.

[maddezmom]

3. updated the link

[LiberalFighter]

4. Make sure Condi is in Iraq when the administration changes hands

and refuse to allow her to exit Iraq.

[saigon68]

9. "Bring Em On" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Faygo Kid]

2. Condi Rice: War criminal. Iraq is falling apart, and they know it.

No other way to put it. Iraq is again coming apart at the seams, and this is another indication.

[gratuitous]

5. Classic misdirection

I wonder if the parent of any 4-year-old spotted the excuse making by "Dr." Condolleezza Rice: "cast a very bad light on the foreign service." Nobody said a goddam thing about the foreign service; they were questioning the ethics of posting people against their will to a war zone.

Twat.

[Supersedeas]

12. intellectual honesty is not Condi's strong suit

[tom_paine]

6. Why should those diplomats be treated like they were Free Citizens

when Amerika is now ruled by the very same govermental forms as Russia and China?

Answer: they shouldn't. They are Virtual Slaves serving the whim of tyrants and war ciminals, like the rest of us.

Tough titty. Maybe if you had had the balls to stand up in 2000, which turned out to very probably be our last chance to save something of the Old American Republic once known as the United States of America, you might not be treated like the unfree subjects of a totalitarian empire.

Which is exactly what our nation is now. Exactly.

Sorry, but FUCK THEM.

We are all fucked, we are all enslaved, why should they have it any better?

[laststeamtrain]

7. State Department warns diplomats of compulsory Iraq duty

Source: AP

State Department warns diplomats of compulsory Iraq duty

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable obtained by The Associated Press.

A similar call-up notice last year caused an uproar among foreign service officers, some of whom objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in the end the State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs.

Now, the State Department anticipates another staffing crisis.

"We face a growing challenge of supply and demand in the 2009 staffing cycle," the cable said, noting that more than 20 percent of the nearly 12,000 foreign service officers have already worked in the two major hardship posts — Iraq and Afghanistan — and a growing number have done tours in both countries.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_embassy

[Demeter]

8. Again? How's That Surge Working For You, Condi?

[LynnTheDem]

10. Why doesn't rice "self select" herself?

Why should everyone else die for her bullshit?

[Supersedeas]

11. Condi is deeply offended by dissent of any color