"Prime Candidates for Iraq"

[Jedburgh]

An opinion piece by a retired FSO and CORDS vet in the Nov 07 FSJ:

Caution: Iraq is Not Vietnam

....Civilian Foreign Service personnel should never be used as “totems” — symbols of a decision by our government’s most senior political officials that every element of the U.S. government must be represented on the battlefield in order to signal our determination to do whatever it takes to win.

Foreign Service officers are not combat professionals, and no amount of training in combat skills, weaponry and self-protection will ever enable them to be more than hostages to luck in a combat environment. As such, they will also never be more than a burden on those military and security forces who have to protect them, and they are unlikely to be able to significantly assist in postwar reconstruction and the transition to democratic institutions in the countries where they serve.

Assigning Foreign Service professionals to such environments does not demonstrate commitment on the part of our government so much as a lack of sound judgment. Nor does it send a signal that this administration intends to win in Iraq and Afghanistan. It merely endangers lives — and not only those of Foreign Service personnel, but also those of the military and security forces who have to protect them.

[Brian Hanley]

I guess the argument could be made that with one of Blackwater's primary tasks being protection of foriegn service personnel that they are quite the diplomatic liability. Hmmm. Hadn't thought of it that way, but it certainly makes sense.

I did a quick stat that suggests life in Iraq is pretty close to as survivable as life in the USA for foriegn service.

3/2000 (approximately 2000) foriegn service workers over 5.5 years of war have died. That's about 28 per 100,000 per year.

According to CDC http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_19.pdf (scroll down to death rates by age and sex) the 35-44 year old age group has a 400 deaths per 100,000 rate from all causes. If you look at table 18, you see that 56 deaths per 100,000 are to be expected from all causes of injury. (Using the lower age adjusted figure rounded down to be conservative.)

That indicates that foriegn service personnel are probably significantly safer in Iraq than at home.

[goesh]

yeh - I thought mortaring the green zone had become less a fad than previously. I think they should have to sleep wearing those goofy looking, bare helments, painted OD

[Surferbeetle]

The FSO Team that I worked with in Iraq was outside the wire everyday, spoke the language, had practical suggestions, and were able to implement some solid ideas. My assessment was a thumbs up.

[jcustis]

This is definitely a dead-thread resurrection, but I just finished reading an advance copy for review purposes of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, and in the heyday of state-sponsored terrorism, diplomats had many occupational hazards abroad.

As I read details of hit-team assasination attempts, snatches off of the streets of Beirut, etc., I routinely asked myself the rhetorical question: Have the dips forgotten their history?

[Jedburgh]

MSNBC, 29 May 08: A Special Appeal from Secretary Rice

....the Human Resources bureau at the State Department has been reviewing a list of diplomats that are up for assignments in 2009 to find those who are "particularly well-qualified" to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the coming months, those individuals will be contacted "to encourage them to volunteer," the official said.

There are an estimated 300 slots for Iraq that need to be filled for 2009. State Department officials say they are hopeful that enough volunteers will surface to avoid these so-called "directed assignments."....