BS: Another Diplomat resigns

Subject: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:54 AM

Senior Diplomat resigns in protest

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:37 AM

Thanks for posting that. I can only hope that it, piled on top of all of the other protests, might prompt some near the shrub to shut him up and get this stopped.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 05:46 PM

Here's something about the other one who resigned and in a very public way, thank goodness. This came by email and I haven't dug a link to it. If anyone thinks it's too much copy and paste, please PM me or Joe and I'll edit or he'll do as he sees fit. Personally, I think it's pretty darned important:

New York TIMES
February 27, 2003
U.S. Diplomat Resigns, Protesting 'Our Fervent Pursuit of War'
By FELICITY BARRINGER

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 26 — A career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan resigned this week in protest against the country's policies on Iraq.

The diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, the political counselor at the United States Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter, "Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson."

Mr. Kiesling, 45, who has been a diplomat for about 20 years, said in a telephone interview tonight that he faxed the letter to Secretary of State Colin L, Powell on Monday after informing Thomas Miller, the ambassador in Athens, of his decision.

He said he had acted alone, but "I've been comforted by the expressions of support I've gotten afterward" from colleagues.

"No one has any illusions that the policy will be changed," he said. "Too much has been invested in the war."

Louis Fintor, a State Department spokesman, said he had no information on Mr. Kiesling's decision and it was department policy not to comment on personnel matters.

In his letter, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by a friend of Mr. Kiesling's, the diplomat wrote Mr. Powell: "We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners."

His letter continued: "Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests."

It is rare but not unheard-of for a diplomat, immersed in the State Department's culture of public support for policy, regardless of private feelings, to resign with this kind of public blast. From 1992 to 1994, five State Department officials quit out of frustration with the Clinton administration's Balkans policy.

Asked if his views were widely shared among his diplomatic colleagues, Mr. Kiesling said: "No one of my colleagues is comfortable with our policy. Everyone is moving ahead with it as good and loyal. The State Department is loaded with people who want to play the team game — we have a very strong premium on loyalty."

The following is the text of John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Kiesling is a career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan.

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S. interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic arsenal.

It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.

The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.

The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September 11 tragedy left us stronger than before, rallying around us a vast international coalition to cooperate for the first time in a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather than take credit for those successes and build on them, this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?

We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.

We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has "oderint dum metuant" really become our motto?

I urge you to listen to America's friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry. And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?

Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America's ability to defend its interests.

I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: DougR
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 01:54 AM

Wow! Two diplomats resigned! That must leave only a few thousand left. Whatever will the government do? Will the government survive you suppose?

Thanks for posting that important piece of news Jack! Since it was only on CNN we probably would never have known about it.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 02:29 AM

The government will survive.

The point is that it takes a good deal, ordinarily, for a 20+ year man in the diplomatic corps to trash his career this way, and there is the presumption that a man with that much experience would know more than the man in the street -- or more than GWB, for that matter -- about world affairs.

Thus, he's serious, knowledgeable, and possibly he's right.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: DougR
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 05:37 PM

Perhaps, Clint, but the fact that two diplomats resigned out of the thousands in the government just doesn't seem to be, to me, much of a revelation.

If all of the Mudcat protestors were diplomats, no doubt ALL of them would have resigned by now, and that would represent a pretty big block of government employees.

I'm surprised, based on the number of people who are protesting a possible war, that there haven't been more of them. Suppose all the rest of the diplomats are conservatives?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 06:25 PM

No Doug, I doubt that all the others are what you call "conservatives". By the way, there is NOTHING conservative about wanting to go to war with Iraq. I also doubt that they are as principled or brave as these men. These men have, at great personal sacrifice made a statement. They deserve to be listened to.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 03:33 AM

I'm old enough to remember Joe McCarthy. Seems like most everybody knew he was a scoundrel, but, practically speaking, nobody had the nerve to take him on until he tried to pick on the Army.

Nobody in government, that is. Walt Kelly, for instance, had a pretty good satirical character in "Pogo" called Simple J. Malarkey. He said people asked him how he had the courage to do that. He said it didn't take courage; it's what we're supposed to be doing.

But the career politicians were mostly fearfully trying to cover their posteriors. "Don't do your job, keep your job," as they say. To most career men the career is the first priority.

And I believe that's the case today, and most days. That's why I think two career men willing to throw it in is a significant number. It would be hard for anybody, including me, to discard something they had spent years of their life building; they must have had what to them was a compelling reason.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 03:51 PM

A saying I like to use from time to time, "the more you try to control things, the more out of control they get" is one that I think applies to this situation. The more the Bush administration tightens its grip, the more people find ways to escape that grip. (Or, another way to say it is, "the harder you squeeze the watermellon seed, the farther shoots when it goes") I think these two diplomats are just two among the first wave of falling dominoes in what will become an ever increasing tide of toppeling dominoes in the rapidly self destructing house of cards that is the Bush administration.

(How's that for a really bad collection of mixed metophors?)

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 06:21 PM

Although it's taken a hell of a beating lately, it does tend to restore my faith in humanity. That, and the millions of ordinary people worldwide who have had the courage of their convictions to speak out.

If we can get past our leaders, maybe there's hope for the world after all.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 06:37 PM

While not at all of the same order of magnitude, I recall taking myself off of the State Department's list of people waiting for a vacancy to open when they abandoned their Vietnamese civilian employees. For those that don't recall that debacle, they gave the locals and the American employees of the Embassy two different locations to report to for helicopter pickup...and then only sent choppers to the one place.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: DougR
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 06:41 PM

So you're predicting mass protest resignations from foreign service and state department personnel eh Carol C? Well, let's wait and see.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 07:03 PM

Not necessarily foreign service and state department personnel specifically. I was thinking of a much broader range of people than that.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Troll
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 11:22 PM

Maybe it's not a principled stance. Maybe it's a calculated risk. If the war doesn't happen or turns out badly, Kiesling stands to profit career-wise big time when or if the Democrats get back in the White House. There could be an ambassador-ship waiting for him. Plus, his retirement is vested and if he's wrong, he still has contacts that any company who does business in foreign markets can use.
I guess I'm just a little suspicious of people who make grand gestures. I always look for the hidden kicker.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Marion
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 11:58 PM

Here's another story about people putting their money where their mouth is. The article begins:

"Some of the world's biggest aid agencies, bracing for a massive humanitarian crisis in Iraq, say they'll refuse money from 'belligerent' countries such as the United States, Britain, and possibly Canada if it joins a U.S.-led attack.

Humanitarian groups acknowledge it's a decision that could cost them millions of dollars, but say the principles at stake are more important.

'What we're saying is we cannot take money from a country that basically causes destruction, then expects us to pick up the pieces,' said Rupen Das of World Vision Canada."

Article from Toronto Star: Aid groups will refuse cash for Iraq

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: DougR
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 12:02 AM

Well, Marion, if the aids groups can do it without USA help, I say great! The USA has enough on it's plate at the moment anyway.

Troll: you are not telling us after all these years that your a skeptic are you? :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Bagpuss
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 06:18 AM

Just to share the British perspective, we have 2 cabinet ministers putting their jobs on the line- one who has threatened to resign if we go to war without UN backing (Clare Short - International Development Secretary), and another who is widely believed that he will do the same (Robin Cook - Leader of the House, and previously Foreign Secretary).

Cook indicates he could join Short in resigning if no second resolution

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 08:04 AM

DougR- You're right, of course, that the vast majority of diplomats will circle the wagons around the Bush Administration's foreign policy imperative (which will sink deeper than the Titantic!). I'm pleased a few are willing to quit and publically announce their reasoning. Still, wouldn't it be nice if the rest of the diplomats, along with the bankers and the oil executives, went marching off to a war that they believe in, to paraphrase an old song by Malvina Reynolds:

The bankers and the diplomats are going in the army!

Peace,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 04:31 PM

I'm willing to resign from the Mudcat if Dubya, Cheney, and Colin Powell step down!

Other than that, I recommend strapping them onto the first 3 cruise missiles that are launched. Let's put their money where their mouths are.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 04:39 PM

DougR you must be finding it pretty tough following your leader now he's demeaned himself to the point of putting a middle-east settlement back on the agenda! Much more of this talking and he might find he can manage without a war at all. I mean how far can you go, brainlessly following a guy like that? I think you need to draw a line in the sand.

If you do have to miss out on the excitement - field hospitals filled with the smell of burnt flesh and carbolic and the screams of amputees (all mere foreigners you would hope); endless mini-wars breaking out around the edges; Turkey and Iran immeasurably strengthened by the blitzkrieg on their neighbour, and of course a squalid race to grab the oil - I'm sure we'll all rally round to cheer you up.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 05:48 PM

Most people would rather do almost anything than change a long cherished opinion, quite regardless of even damning evidence to the contrary. They achieve this by simply not paying much (if any) attention to that evidence, quickly dismissing it, and by cheering lustily whenever anyone speaks out supporting their established opinion.

The prescription is: Don't worry your head about the fact that the Bush administration keeps changing its reasons for attacking Iraq, don't worry about the fact that it is launching a completely unnecessary war against a pathetically weak opponent which is incapable of menacing the USA, don't worry about the cribbed college papers presented as up-to-date evidence by Blair, don't worry about the forged documents presented to the U.N. to prove things that never happened, don't worry about the lies, the evasions, the transparent greed for Iraqui oil, don't worry about the horrific collateral damage that will ruin the lives of millions for years to come, don't worry about the fact that almost the whole World now looks upon the USA as an out-of-control aggressor run by a criminal administration...don't even think about any of that!

Just focus on the monster Saddam...on how evil he is...on how he MUST be stopped now by "all necessary means"!!!!

Just keep focused on that, folks. Gotta love that Saddam, eh? He must be worth, oh, I'd say a good $100 billion to the American administration and its undeclared agenda. Without him, whatever would they do?

They'd have to find another "bad guy", that's what. Probably a former employee too, like Saddam and Bin Laden. Those bad guys love the Yankee dollar and the high tech weaponry it buys for them.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 01:20 PM

LH, you can't resign unless Ashcroft and Rumsfeld go, too!!!:-)

Right on, on your last posting, too!!

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: allanwill
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 03:12 PM

Some Aussies are putting their hand up, too,

Allan

March 13 2003
By Mark Forbes
Defence Correspondent
Canberra

Disquiet over Australia's backing for a war on Iraq is widespread across the intelligence, foreign affairs and defence sectors, key insiders say.

The resignation of Office of National Assessments senior analyst Andrew Wilkie in protest at the Howard Government's stance reflected views held by many senior officials, former top ONA official David Wright-Neville said

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 03:54 PM

The sniper's bluff will pick you off
In the form of DougR's scoff
Without a single thought his own
He'll drop you fighting all alone

Right and wrong will wave his flag
But research Doug says "is a drag"
He can't assert of justice done
Reactions win his needy "won"

Sarcastic quipping is his weapon
And teach he will, some fascist lesson
I'm wishing he could lovingly
Stop his striful shooting spree

Like many here, I love this land
And people all are worth a stand
But condescending snipers fail
And leave Democracy unavailed

;^) Be nicer
ttr

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 04:38 PM

DougR : Well, Marion, if the aids groups can do it without USA help, I say great! The USA has enough on it's plate at the moment anyway.

With so many "conservatives" hypocritically following an agenda of petty isolationism and arrogance. "The US can do it alone! We don't need the rest of the world! It is so refreshing to see express that feeling so openly. Kudos Doug!

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 15 Mar 03 - 05:22 PM

Sorry, corrected version.
With so many "conservatives" hypocritically following an agenda of petty isolationism and arrogance. "The US can do it alone! We don't need the rest of the world!" It is so refreshing to see one express that feeling so openly. Kudos Doug!

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: DougR
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 03:31 PM

Wow! I'm had my fifteen minutes of fame! A song written about me! Thank you TTR!

Is that nice enough? :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Another Diplomat resigns
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 11:26 AM

Bully for them, I say. I wonder if, had the gubmint told my Dad what they were sending him into, if he'd have resigned instead of letting them send him to Beirut to be blown up...