US State – enforcing Iraq postings

The US State Department (foreign service) is enforcing postings in Iraq – there is no turning them down it seems, else you lose your job. That’s scary for 250 or so people who will be informed on Monday, and have just 10 days to reply. The only excuses allowed are medical it seems.

I know a few folk in the US State Department, which has traditionally attracted the best and brightest, from both sides of the partisan fence.  This is terrible news for them, for the Department and for those recruiting aspiring diplomats.

The correct answer would have been to wildly increase the incentives to increase the numbers of people that want the postings – even (especially) if the required pay matched or exceeded those of the contractors hired to protect them.