The agency needs to completely revamp its internals to rebuild what Carter destroyed so long ago.
Reminds me of my father's experience long ago, with a certain bowling ball Company based in Mclean, VA. Back then, at parties given for bowling ball sales agents in various countries we lived in, my father's friends would boast to me how their language skills rivaled my fathers. I would snicker to myself, as these guys really thought that they could challenge a native bowling ball maker at his own naturally absorbed craft - spending a couple of years at an intensive bowling ball school in Monterey just don't compare.
But the point is - at least they were trying. They understood that the key to understanding the market was to absorb the culture - and try to swim unnoticed in its waters. But then, that disgusting POS Carter went and said that it was not nice to look at other people's bowling balls - and the whole sales department was fired or resigned enmasse.
Now, whadda we got? Unmitigated careerist PC crap. We have an organization that will put an African-American in a lily-white Eastern European nation, who doesn't speak the language, all because he threatens to sue the Company for limiting his career-advancing postings. Similarly, we have females demanding postings in countries where women don't get close to the power centers of anything. Screw that - they want their careers, they're willing to sue - so oh what the hay...post'em.
Not to pick on the "more equal" members of our deranged PC society, since sales agents from the less pampered segments of our nation were also were picked on a completely useless basis of sterling resumes at the nation's top schools, and who could hardly muster the language skills necessary to hail a cab from the local Hilton to the airport when the shittaki begins flying.
The damage that's done is never immediately apparent - it's just aggregated over something as nebulous as reduced visibility into the inner workings of nations everywhere. Meanwhile, these careerist clowns advance into more senior positions, and haul up their fellow useless colleagues along with them.
So, this fellow has museum-quality pieces from all the countries he was stationed in? Great. Maybe if he'd concentrated on the word on the street, while ducking in and out of antique shops, we could have a better idea of what the heck is going on with the Pakistanis. Are they with us or not? Nobody knows. Good job.
I don't know what it will take. A full house-cleaning, involving mass firings? But...how much is possible with the prevailing PC insanity in the culture at large? Just a case in point. At a certain army base training facility I did some work at - (it wasn't Charlie Force, nor Echo Force), there were some very serious men - who were quite clear about how they handled business in the field. You didn't hear about "rights" and "due process" for the people they faced off against, but strolling some of the buildings, I was struck by the bulletin boards announcing mandatory "Sensitivity" briefings, commitments to Affirmative Action, and warnings about Sexual Harassment for these highly effective Warriors. Only in the fairy-tale land of a government bureaucrat can killing machines like these guys prance through the daffodils singing "We are the World", while taking up firing positions on an Al Qaeda bunker.
Until we figure that out - we're not going to be all that effective anywhere in this global jihad to come.
I don't recall the bowling ball story...sounds just like something that weasle would do though.
I agree with your other points.
Your post illustrates a point I have tried to make often. The trial lawyers, who are the left's handmaidens, do as much or more than anyone to limit our rights and choices and to harm this country.
The ability to change foreign policy execution by threatening PC suits shows how effectively we have allowed ourselves to be cuffed.