Who will raise our diplomatic children if we are dead or seriously wounded?

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


See?? They can get people to go....they just need to pay enough.

Since I have no takers, I'll go $70,000, one day only sale.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The problem is they don't just need warm bodies (thanks anyway, Lancer) -- they need experienced people with specific expertise. Otherwise the financial incentives alone would probably do it.

The financial package is attractive: you get 190% of your government base pay (unlike the military, though, it's taxed), plus free plane tickets for three Regional Rest Breaks (in Dubai, I think) and two R&Rs (London, though you can also use them to go home) during your one-year tour; if you're married, your spouse gets a Separation Maintenance Allowance and the choice of remaining at your last Post or returning to the US. If remaining at the last post, your kids also continue to get a free education.

The fact that that's not enough to lure people on government salaries, who have to afford housing in Washington and plan to send there kids to toney private universities, tells you something about the depth of their misgivings about Iraq. The fact that the people saying "no" are, in fact, the people with the greatest expertise and experience (which is why they were targeted to begin with) indicates to me, at least, that theirs is an informed and principled decision.

[Zkribbler]

Thanks for the insight, Rufus.

(I knew I liked our government. It's just our leaders I can't stand.)

[Lancer]

Too bad, I could use $70,000. Or, if I got blowed up, Dolores could use 2 million to change alot of people's lives. But! I'd be dead, and I'd rather not.

[Straybow]

Bah, they're still whiners.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I just thought I'd share a coda to this story.

I heard today that an acquaintance of mine is being directed to Iraq -- and not to the Green Zone, but to one of the PRTs. She's 60 years old -- a grandmother -- and she's in roughly the physical shape you'd expect of a 60-year-old woman who's worked a desk job her whole life.

This is who we're sending to Iraq -- where she'll don 30 pounds of protective gear and then sit around in the blazing heat, waiting for something to do.

She's not going, of course. She's not whining, not filing a grievance -- just retiring, leaving State one more officer short and taking with her 3 decades of valuable experience that the Department could have used for another few years.

Anybody here think that Iraq is going to be turned around by more grandma/bureaucrats in the field? Anyone?

Bottom line: The occasional cookie-pushing whiner aside, the Foreign Service Officers I know are kicking about directed assignments because they seem so freakin' pointless and ill-conceived, as well as a monumental waste of a scarce resource (fact: the military has more members stationed in Mississippi than the Foreign Service has members, period). Grandma is Exhibit A.

[DinoDoc]

Forgive me for saying this, but what good is grandma to the Foreign Service anyway given the number of posts that are arguably dangerous?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Forgive me for saying this, but what good is grandma to the Foreign Service anyway given the number of posts that are arguably dangerous?

Having worked with her? Lots of good. Many posts are dangerous, but of the 180+ posts worldwide, only two or three are in certifiable war zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe Khartoum). And this isn't somebody who'd shrink from a post just because its dangerous; direct her to Lagos, or Dili, or Bogata, and she'd go.

But instead they take somebody who'd be an asset to 170+ posts worldwide, to say nothing of DC, and direct her to one of the only posts where she'll be a liability? That's just stupid (which is to say, par for the course in this war).

edit - And, just as a reminder, diplomats aren't hired to work in war zones; when a post becomes a war zone, the diplomats are typically sent home (as happened most recently in Abidjan, iirc). So nobody's expecting the diplomatic corps to maintain buff warrior physiques; we weren't hired for our strength and stamina.

[MarkG]

Let Our Grandma Come Home!