Here We Go Again

I'm reading the transcript, and watching as many clips as I can find, but this clap-trap from President Bush seems all too familiar.


The shame of it all is if Bush had bothered to read that damn memo, the "danger" he invokes every time things don't go his way would not be relevant to every political discussion.


Meanwhile, you have Diplomats in the Foreign Services who refuse to go to Iraq:

Angry US diplomats lashed out yesterday against a State Department plan that would send them to Iraq against their will, with one likening it to "a potential death threat" and another accusing the department of providing inadequate care to diplomats who have returned home traumatized.

At a rare, contentious meeting, foreign service officers told senior State Department officials that the move to fill vacancies in Baghdad puts them in danger, jeopardizes the well-being of their families, and could deplete the ranks of those willing to serve overseas at a critical time. Several diplomats said privately they would resign rather than accept orders to serve in Iraq. The president of their union pointed out that about 2,000 State Department personnel have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, greatly taxing the ranks of the 11,000-member core.

How did things get this bad?

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, ambitious diplomats flocked to posts there, which were seen as tickets for promotion. But as the danger grew, and as Baghdad became the largest US embassy in the world, filling posts in Baghdad became more difficult.

The so-called surge of troops in Iraq, ordered by President Bush this year, has also stretched the foreign service ranks. Ambassador Ryan Crocker asked for 80 additional positions to increase the US diplomatic presence alongside the increased troops in Provincial Reconstruction Teams and other posts.