One of the problems that hampered reconstruction in Iraq was that the Bush Administration hired young loyalists with no foreign policy experience to do extremely important and difficult jobs. In his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Rajiv Chandrasekaran noted that potential employees seeking a position in Iraq were asked explicitly if they voted for George Bush in 2000, and some were even asked for their views on Roe v. Wade. Unsurprisingly, the people hired tried to implement tenets of conservative ideology instead of taking necessary and pragmatic steps.
So why stop now? The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq just complained to Condoleezza Rice in an unclassified memo that employees at the massive U.S. embassy in Baghdad are either too young for the job, are unqualified, and/or are “trying to save their careers” by taking an urgent assignment in Iraq.
“Simply put,” wrote the ambassador, Ryan Crocker, “we cannot do the nation’s most important work if we do not have the Department’s best people.” Sorry, Mr. Crocker. If this administration’s track record is any indication, you’ll be getting Bush-Cheney ’04 opposition researchers and Heritage Foundation junior staffers. Good luck trying to protect America’s interests in a failed state of our own making — especially with those folks on your team.
The embassy in Baghdad is America’s largest embassy in the world, with a 2007 budget of more than $1 billion and a staff that includes more than 1,000 Americans and 4,000 third-country nationals. It is due for a $1.3 billion remodeling, which would renovate the 100+ acre compound and add a new pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, and the like. Whoops, forget I mentioned that.
