By Joshua Kucera
Slate Magazine
The Washington Post leads locally but off-leads news that the State Department is planning to fill up to 50 vacant positions in Iraq by forcing members of the diplomatic corps to go there, the first time such an order would be made since Vietnam.
The State Department will try to fill as many positions as possible in Iraq with volunteers, but if there aren't enough who sign up, the department will fill force diplomats to go and fill the rest of the spots.
The new policy has been driven by the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, who wrote a cable this summer asking for more and more experienced officials in the Baghdad embassy.
"In essence," he wrote, "the issue is whether we are a Department and a Service at war. If we are, we need to organize and prioritize in a way that reflects this, something we have not done thus far."
The union that represents diplomats objects to the new policy, saying it's not necessary and will hurt the diplomatic corps.
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