WASHINGTON: (AP) 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 hour-long “town hall meeting,” they peppered officials behind the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats — under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying provinces.
Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to serve in a war zone, where the embassy staff is largely confined to the so-called “Green Zone,” and the safety outside the area is uncertain while a review of the department’s use of private security contractors to protect its staff is under way.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/31/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-Embassy.php?WT.mc_id=rssamerica
