“I have deep respect for the career Foreign and Civil Service staff...”
Well, that makes one of us. As a career intelligence officer - one who passed the Foreign Service Test and passed on the opportunity to join State, I had numerous opportunities to work with the State Dept. and I was continually amazed at the utter ineptitude and complete lack of appreciation of the truth by State Dept. employees. They seemed to look at the world the way they wanted it to be, not the way it was/is and I was continually amazed at how they could bastardize intelligence to make legitimate threats seem innocent and innocuous.
You nailed State. After 20 years Army I made the mistake of joining State, but I retired at 55 rather work with lying backstabbing liberals without honor.