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Forced Iraq postings rile U.S. diplomats

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."

In a contentious hourlong "town hall meeting" called to explain the step, the diplomats peppered the official who signed the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying provinces.

"Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone," said Jack Crotty, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces.

Employees confronted foreign service director general Harry Thomas, who approved the "directed assignments" Friday to make up for a lack of volunteers.

"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Crotty said. "I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?

"You know that at any other (country) in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point," Crotty said.

[Last modified November 1, 2007, 00:25:11]