Foreign Service Wimps – An Open Letter to Sec. Condoleeza Rice
In 1996 I took and passed the written Foreign Service Exam. The following spring I washed out of the process during the interview phase. One of my high school friends did the same thing, except he reapplied the following year and was chosen. I didn’t because I decided to forgo my dream in order for the Wife to pursue hers.
Now she’s achieved her dream, so maybe it’s time to achieve mine.
Dear Madame Secretary Rice:
After learning that members of the foreign service are refusing to be posted to Iraq, using theatrics that get headlines in the liberal mainstream press like Jack Croddy, a senior foreign service officer who didn’t let the fact that no foreign service officer has been killed in Iraq stop him from referring to the posting there as a “potential death sentence,” I hereby offer my services as a replacement to Mr. Croddy and in return will volunteer for an Iraqi posting. I offer my services on the condition that I receive the same pay, benefits and position as Mr. Croddy and that Mr. Croddy be summarily dismissed to the private sector where I have worked since washing out of the Foreign Service process in 1997.
It’s time Mr. Croddy knows what it is like to take orders, to do things one doesn’t like to do in order to remain employed. Mr. Croddy and the members of the Foreign Service who cheered him have clearly forgotten how easily those of us in the private sector can be dismissed – often for no fault of our own, and certainly for standing up and criticizing a company policy and its head in public – as Mr. Croddy has done. The jobs that these people enjoyed are a privilege granted to only a few, yet they have clearly disrespected their offices by acting in so childish a manner.
I guarantee that should you accept my offer, I will not bring shame to you, your department, or the nation that it serves as Mr. Croddy and his cohorts have done. In addition I would look forward to helping a nation that has suffered under the heel of oppression for generations to rise up and achieve the peace and freedom it deserves, an opportunity that Mr. Croddy and his ilk selfishly refuse.
Sincerely,
Scott Kirwin
I doubt my phone will ring anytime soon; I’m too old, opinionated and conservative to make a good diplomat (“So you’re the new Cheese-Eating-Surrender-Monkey – I mean ‘French’ – attache…”). But if it did… well, it would be life changing that’s for sure.
Bruce Andrew:
“too old, opinionated and conservative to make a good diplomat”?
No way. I’m living proof that you can make it too. True, there are very few of us, and many more like Croddy; but the likes of you are needed here, Scott. But getting through that interview phase can be a bear. It may be that you’d need to keep your political views tucked away till you’ve got an acceptance letter.
2 November 2007, 7:03 amScott Kirwin:
Bruce
I think the cutoff is 35, isn’t it? Like I said, I’m too old. But who knows? Maybe Condi will change the rules for me.
It amuses me to no end how the groups screaming “diversity!” are some of the least diverse around. State could use a few geezers like me…
2 November 2007, 9:01 amPirates! Man Your Women! » Blog Archive » State Department wussies:
[...] Scott at The Razor volunteers to take the wussies place. [...]
4 November 2007, 2:12 pm