State Dept. blog: State employees are wimps

Throughout the week, we've been posting e-mails from U.S. foreign service officers on their reaction to the State Department's controversial decision to "draft" FSOs for service in Baghdad. Yesterday, the State Department's official blog, Dipnote, got into the act by posting a letter from Anbar-based FSO John Matel. Matel advises his fellow employees to cowboy up and consider how ridiculous they look to those in uniform, who were never asked for their opinions about being sent to Iraq:

I will not repeat what the Marines say when I bring up this subject. I tell them that most FSOs are not wimps and weenies. I will not share this article with them and I hope they do not see it. How could I explain this wailing and gnashing of teeth? I just tried to explain it to one of my PRT members, a reserve LtCol called up to serve in Iraq . She asked me if all FSOs would get the R&R, extra pay etc. and if it was our job to do things like this. When I answered in the affirmative, she just rolled her eyes. 

[…] 

If these guys at the town hall meeting do not want to come to Iraq , that is okay with. I would not want that sort out here with me anyway. We have enough trouble w/o having to baby sit. BUT they are not worldwide available and they might consider the type of job that does not require worldwide availability.

We all know that few FSOs will REALLY be forced to come to Iraq anyway. Our system really does not work like that. This sound and fury at Foggy Bottom truly signifies nothing. Get over it! I do not think many Americans feel sorry for us and it is embarrassing for people with our privileges to paint ourselves as victims. 

A shorter version of this post was written on Matel's personal blog last week. It's strange that Dipnote would choose to publicize departmental infighting this way. My initial assessment of Dipnote as a collection of glorified press releases might have been premature. Karen Hughes has only been gone for a week, and already this supposed tool of public diplomacy is being used to browbeat State's own employees. I doubt that Dipnote will be posting the other side's views any time soon, but they have proven us wrong before.

Passport, on the other hand, is still interested in hearing from FSOs on both sides of the debate. Keep those e-mails coming.

UPDATE: DipNote Bloggers write in:

DipNote was started to provide a forum for dialogue with the public and provide greater transparency into the Department. Given his perspective as a PRT team leader in Al Anbar Province, we thought our readers would benefit from hearing about Mr. Matel's experiences in the field. Mr. Matel has his own blog, so we asked if he'd like to blog for our site as well as his own. Since the issue of directed assignments is in the news, we thought his post on the issue was particularly timely and decided to post it. We would not characterize his post as "browbeating" his colleagues; he's expressing his opinion in a forum for open discussion. That's what blogs are for, right?

As for Dipnote iteself, initial reactions to have been …shall we say, varied. At first, some commenters indicated that the blog would be nothing more that a "collection of glorified press releases." Ironically, others later indicated that, "It's strange that DipNote would choose to publicize departmental infighting this way." We understand the ratoinale behind both of those sentiments, but are not allowing polarizing comments to sway us from our mission to provide a fair and objective forum.

As we stated in our first post, we hope to cut through the opacity of the Department and provide an open forum. If directed assignments are what people are taking about, we'll blog about it. We're always open to anyone who wishes to contribute a blog entry expressing varying points of view and we'll run it on Dipnote.