US foreign service feels strain of Iraq

Washington, June 6: The US foreign service, stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffers from morale problems and has about 200 unfilled posts abroad due to staff shortages, said a study released.

The report by the Foreign Affairs Council, an umbrella group of 11 foreign policy organizations consisting largely of ex-diplomats, took aim at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's management skills since she took over in January 2005 and said she should devote more time to staffing issues.

''Morale is strongly impacted by the fact that we don't have enough people,'' said Tom Boyatt, a former U.S. ambassador and president of the council.

Boyatt said Rice's priority should be filling about 200 empty posts abroad as well as an additional 900 training slots needed to provide key language and other skills necessary to carry out U.S. diplomacy.

''I don't think we can go on for much longer like this,'' Boyatt told a news conference to release the report, which assesses Rice's management role but not her foreign policy.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack agreed that getting more people was key but rejected criticism of Rice.

''This is armchair quarterbacking,'' McCormack said. ''I think she's been a bold leader and a bold manager in trying to reorient the State Department to the tasks of the 21st century, as opposed to the 20th century.''

Danger Spots

Since the 2001 attacks on America, the State Department has come under increasing personnel pressure as more staff are sent to danger spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan. More than a fifth of all current foreign service officers have served in Iraq.

''Widespread anecdotal evidence suggests worsening morale,'' said the report.

McCormack said Rice was proud of the work US diplomats were doing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been a drain on the foreign service.

''Point out for me two more important foreign policy challenges facing the United States right now? You would be hard-pressed to find them,'' he said.

Since coming to the State Department, Rice has launched what she calls ''transformational diplomacy,'' a repositioning of diplomats from comfortable countries such as France and Germany to Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere that have been tagged as key to fighting terrorism.

Former US Ambassador Ed Rowell, who interviewed about 40 State Department employees for the report, said in countries where people had been withdrawn there was evidence that communications with host governments was affected.

''They are not as effective and host governments have noticed that,'' he said.

Boyatt said each secretary of state had a responsibility to leave the department at least as healthy as they found it.

''Foreign policies come and go but the people of the foreign service and the State Department, the people that do the diplomacy go on forever,'' he said.

As of the end of last year, the State Department had nearly 20,000 US employees, with some 11,325 belonging to the foreign service, according to the State Department's Bureau of Human Resources.

Reuters>