Hunter: Fire Reluctant State Dept Employees, Hire Iraq/Aghanistan Vets
Duncan Hunter (R-CA) had a great suggestion for those State Department employees who don’t want to go serve in Iraq…he suggests we fire the lot of them, take a tour down through Walter Reed and Bethesda, and make job offers to wounded vets.
Man, I like that. ~Bash
You can get up to speed on those fucking pussies below:
WASHINGTON– State Department officials should serve where they are needed — even in war-torn Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
Rice was responding to foreign service officers’ objections to the possibility of “directed assignments” in Iraq. The issue has caused an uproar in the State Department, resulting in a contentious town hall-style meeting Wednesday.
The new directives would be needed if enough qualified foreign service officers don’t step forward to fill open positions at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
If the State Department enforces directed assignments, it will be the first time since the Vietnam War era.
One official called the order to serve in Iraq “a potential death sentence” during the town meeting.
The State Department already has begun notifying about 200 people considered prime candidates. Those chosen will be given 10 days to respond, according to last week’s announcement. Unless they have a valid medical reason to refuse, those who decline could face dismissal, it said.
Wednesday’s heated meeting was replayed on an internal State Department television channel in Washington several times and talked about widely.
Some at the hourlong meeting questioned why they were not told of the policy change directly, learning about it instead from news organizations last week.
“I just have no respect for the whole process because you’ve demonstrated a lack of respect for your own colleagues,” said foreign service officer Jack Croddy.
“Thank you for that comment. It’s full of inaccuracies, but that’s OK,” Harry Thomas Jr., director general of the foreign service, shot back.
Others pointed out the risks of such assignments, considering the dangers of a war zone, lack of security and regular rocket attacks on U.S. personnel.
Rice, who did not attend the meeting, tried to calm things down Friday by underscoring the State Department’s attempts to do “everything that we can to try and protect our diplomats.”
However, she said, “This is one of the highest priority tasks of the United States, and we’re going to meet our obligations.”
Speaking to reporters en route to Turkey and the Mideast, she said, “I don’t know if we will have direct assignments or not, but we are one foreign service, and people need to serve where they are needed.”
The secretary sent out a cable to State Department employees worldwide encouraging them to serve in Iraq.
“This year [U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker] has identified the need for additional positions to more effectively accomplish our mission in Iraq,” Rice said in the cable.
Rice said she has decided to go forward with the identification of officers to serve, “should it prove necessary to direct assignments.”
“Should others step forward, as some already have, we will fill these new jobs as we have before — with volunteers. However, regardless of how the jobs may be filled, they must be filled,” she said.
Rice earlier said reports that the State Department was finding it hard to coax foreign service employees into Iraq “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The assignments are new positions. Fifteen people have stepped forward to volunteer for Iraq service since the new policy was announced October 26, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
McCormack rejected comments by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, that State Department employees are “nervous Nellies” and that wounded U.S. military veterans should be asked to fill the Iraq vacancies.
McCormack said until now the State Department has been successful in filling jobs in Iraq with volunteers. Since 2003, more than 1,500 personnel have volunteered to go to Iraq, he said. But with the expansion of the staff in Iraq this year, 58 spots were left open.
“They are serving in dangerous and challenging places,” he said. “We have a lot of brave people who are stepping up to the plate in Anbar and Basra and Baghdad and Kabul and a lot of other places that are not necessarily in the headlines.”
State Department employees have been killed in Iraq, but McCormack could not say how many.
(CNN)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Quote from one “A$$ Hole” State Department employee protesting: You are sending a death sentence on me….WHO is going to take care of my wife and children if I get kill….waaaaa waaaaa. So you are telling me and my Son, who is fighting in Iraq, that it is all right for us to be over there but not YOU! How pathetic this shameless Department employee whine and cry while tens of thousands of Marines, Soldiers, Navy, and Air Force personnel who have served day in and day out in that harsh environment of Iraq. This CRY BABY, if he did go, will be in the nice safe “Green Zone” where his chance of getting hurt or killed would be less then probably traveling on our freeways day in and day out! FIRE ALL THAT WILL NOT SERVE OUR COUNTRY! And I like that idea of replacing those pathetic losers with our brave disable Veterans. I bet my month’s pay that a good 80% of them would jump on a chance to work for the State Department that its pay very good and the benefits are of the highest standard. Sooooo gooooood bye you pathetic losers. Ga dam oh I hate shamless whiners!!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:07 pmThey are liberals after all
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:50 pmIf you are a diplomat, you serve at the behest of your country. It is a dangerous job sometimes. If a diplomat can’t handle that assignment then maybe that person should find another line of work.
Whatever happened to service to one’s country over service to one’s self anyways? I got a cousin who’s worked for State for many years and he’s served in countries that make Iraq look like a walk in the park. He’s getting close to retirement, but he still loves the job. Dangereous or not
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:10 pmhe goes wherever the assignment takes him…no matter who runs State or who is President.
Let ‘em whine all the way to the unemployment office. Fire the bunch of them who refuse to serve where needed. I lump people like that in with our elected Congresspeople. They are only there to make money, at taxpayers expense. I’d like to see a complete Congressional turnover, too, but, that’s a different post. There are numerous vets from all wars who would jump at the chance to be a diplomat. Didja ever see a grimy, dirty diplomat? Not hardly.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:56 pm