It is this reporter's opinion that the controversy over Foreign Service officers serving in the Middle East continues. Some diplomats claim that forced service in Iraq amounts to a “potential death sentence.”
By way of comparison, almost 4,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have been killed in Iraq, while only three State Department employees have been killed there since Bush’s pre-emptive attack on Iraq began more than four years ago.
In the past four-and one-half years, more than 1,500 State Department personnel have served in Iraq. Their service represents a mortality rate of 0.2 percent or approximately one casualty every 18 months.
When the order came down to serve under the threat of dismissal, the controversy raged. One senior Foreign Service officer said it is one thing if someone believes in what is going on over there and volunteers; however, it is another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment.
But Foreign Service Director Gen. Harry Thomas told the prime candidates for service in the Middle East a decision to fill “directed assignments” with non-volunteers will stand, although such a directive has not been issued since the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told department personnel she is saddened by the need to force assignments but requested the diplomats do their duty to their country, regardless of circumstances.
One career Foreign Service officer, John Matel, presently serving in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq, tells his overwrought colleagues to “take a deep breath and calm down.” Matel says, “All of us volunteered for this kind of work; we have enjoyed a pretty sweet lifestyle most of our careers.”
Matel admits, “I personally dislike the whole idea of forced assignments, but we do have to do our jobs.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., ranking GOP member of the House Armed Services Committee and a candidate for the 2008 campaign for president, has delivered a letter to President Bush wryly requesting that the diplomats who refuse to serve in Iraq be replaced with wounded veterans from Walter Reed and Bethesda Hospitals.
Hunter, whose son is now serving his third tour of duty in Iraq, adds, “It’s a sad day for the State Department when you can’t get 45 volunteers to go into Iraq — even into the Green Zone which is fortified. And the U.S. Marine Corps is 180,000 strong and all volunteers.”
“If I have to go out and recruit the veterans [to replace State Department officers], I’ll do it myself!”
Incidentally, it is time to determine the number of sons and daughters and family loved ones of duly elected public officials, senators, congressmen, and White House associates, who are now serving our country in the Middle East.
When they volunteered, they had no way of knowing where their service would take them. All they asked was how they could best serve duty, honor, and their country.
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