'Special Report' Panel on Uproar at the State Department (Duncan Hunter: Fire 'em!)

correction—never mind worry about a decrease in retirement

Roughly 1,500 State employees have served in Iraq since 2003, which means that 1 in 500 have been killed.

Over 4 years, which comes to 1 in 2000 per year, for a statistical death rate of 50 per 100K.

On the list of dangerous jobs, this puts serving in Iraq for State below logging (92.4/100K) aircraft pilots, and fishing(86.4), and slightly above structural iron and steel workers(47.0) and trash collectors(43.2)

However, you would fill few diplomatic jobs with wounded soldiers. You'd hire those who speak Arabic, have degrees in Middle Eastern history, etc.

In other words, people who have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the Muslim worldview by Wahhabist-dominated faculties at the various universities Middle Eastern Studies departments

I would think an Army Special Forces officer who has spent a couple of tours in Iraq, actually interacting with tribal leaders, could do better for the US

Thanks!

Even better.


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Diplomats should go to Baghdad

Nov. 2: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) says the U.S. diplomats who refuse to work at the embassy in Baghdad should be fired. He talks to MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=eae0616b-c9f4-4a8f-aa4b-9b9390e397d1

Did you get the monday morn Bill Bennett segment with Hunter?

American Foreign Service Association

http://www.afsa.org/state/102907afsanet.cfm

AFSAnet: DG’s Announcement of Next Steps in Identifying Candidates for Directed Assignments to Iraq

Excerpts:

...AFSA firmly believes, however, that it is vital for Iraq assignments to remain voluntary. Directed assignments of FS civilians into a war zone, as we told Secretary Rice last month, would be bad for the targeted individual, bad for the post, and bad for the Foreign Service as a whole.

....AFSA stands ready to provide information and advice, in strict confidence, to those members who are notified that they have been designated as ‘prime candidates’ for one or more of these positions. We can also offer some clarity concerning the possible disciplinary actions, alluded to in the DG’s cable, that might be applied to any employee who refuses to accept an assignment.

...If additional volunteers come forward, this eventuality still might be avoided, so we encourage any member who has been contemplating a tour of duty in Iraq to consider volunteering. We will continue to urge our Department interlocutors to find ways to increase the pool of qualified voluntary bidders without resorting to directed assignments.

...For example, the report projects that 2-17 percent of those returning from all unaccompanied posts are likely to be suffering from full-blown PTSD, but there is no way to determine how many of those are veterans of the two war zones.

...Order an immediate doubling of the Separate Maintenance Allowance for those serving at involuntary unaccompanied posts, as well as a significant cash “signing bonus” (perhaps $20,000) for anyone willing to volunteer for those positions...

...AFSA Group Accidental Death Coverage has been expanded to include Medical Evacuation and Repatriation Costs (up to $75,000). Terrorism is covered everywhere in the world and at full policy limits. It doesn’t cost much either, at $1 per $1,000 of coverage. Choose limits from $50,000 to $500,000.

Today’s Foreign Service: Love It or Leave It?

Excerpts:

...Many of these multiple-hardship veterans sent us comments accusing a whole class of colleagues of craftily avoiding the tough assignments by “gaming” the system and exploiting seventh-floor connections and personal ties to certain bureau front offices.

...Many of those currently in Washington or at less difficult overseas posts express frustration over the increasingly exclusive focus on hardship, which they believe is penalizing them in promotions and onward assignments and making them feel as if their hard work is not valued any more.

This chart does not reflect additional benefits availabe in a hardship assignment.

2007 FOREIGN SERVICE SCHEDULE

(Effective on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2007)

Step	Class
Step	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	93,063	75,408	61,102	49,511	40,118	35,864	32,062	28,662	25,623
2	95,855	77,670	62,935	50,996	41,322	36,940	33,024	29,522	26,392
3	98,731	80,000	64,823	52,526	42,561	38,048	34,015	30,408	27,183
4	101,692	82,400	66,768	54,102	43,838	39,190	35,035	31,320	27,999
5	104,743	84,872	68,771	55,725	45,153	40,365	36,086	32,259	28,839
6	107,886	87,419	70,834	57,397	46,508	41,576	37,169	33,227	29,704
7	111,122	90,041	72,959	59,119	47,903	42,823	38,284	34,224	30,595
8	114,456	92,742	75,148	60,892	49,340	44,108	39,432	35,251	31,513
9	117,889	95,525	77,402	62,719	50,820	45,431	40,615	36,308	32,458
10	120,981	98,390	79,724	64,601	52,345	46,794	41,834	37,397	33,432
11	120,981	101,342	82,116	66,539	53,915	48,198	43,089	38,519	34,435
12	120,981	104,382	84,579	68,535	55,533	49,644	44,381	39,675	35,468
13	120,981	107,514	87,117	70,591	57,199	51,133	45,713	40,865	36,532
14	120,981	110,739	89,730	72,709	58,915	52,667	47,084	42,091	37,628

What some State Department people do: http://www.afsa.org/fsj/mar07/iraq_prts.pdf

The Iraq PRT Mission Iraq Provincial Reconstruction Teams, known as PRTs, are civilian- military organizations that are being created to support provincial government capacity devel- opment. In most cases the team leader is a State Department Foreign Service officer and the deputy team leader is a military officer.

It’s the most “real” work in the State Department.

Several FS PRT members pointed out that there are 3161s serving as Iraq provincial action officers, in the same positions as Foreign Service officers, yet without the diplomatic training or experience — and for double the salary.

Lovely. Just lovely.