State Gets a Kick in the Nuts

Upon his departure Manuel Miranda, a diplomat with the Office of Legislative Statecraft in the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has a blistering assessment of State Dept. policy in Iraq . According to Miranda:

I support a long-term American military presence in Iraqi bases, welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Iraqis and a democratically-elected government, as a means of bringing peace and stability to the region, as we did in Europe and the Far East. History may recognize this end as singularly worthy of the sacrifice that America's sons and daughters have made. I believe, however, that the potential for this peace requires the progress of Iraqi society and the confidence of the Iraqi people in their government.

That civilian progress, and the Pax Americana, will not be achieved with the Foreign Service and the State Department's bureaucracy at the helm of America's number one policy consideration. You are simply not up to the task, and many of you will readily and honestly admit it. I believe that a better job can be done. It is simply that we have brought to Iraq the worst of America -- our bureaucrats -- and failed to apply, as President Roosevelt once did, the high-caliber leadership class and intellectual talent, whose rallying has defined all of America's finest hours. . . .

The purpose of the Surge, now one year old, was to pacify Iraq to allow the GOI to stand up. The State Department has not done its part coincident with the Commanding General's effort. This is not the fault of intelligent and hard working individuals skilled at the functions of the "normal embassy." The problem is institutional. The State Department bureaucracy is not equipped to handle the urgency of America's Iraq investment in blood and taxpayer funds. You lack the "fierce urgency of now."

Foreign Service officers, with ludicrously little management experience by any standard other than your own, are not equipped to manage programs, hundreds of millions in funds, and expert human capital assets needed to assist the Government of Iraq to stand up. It is apparent that, other than diplomacy, your only expertise is your own bureaucracy, which inherently makes State Department personnel unable to think outside the box or beyond the paths they have previously taken.

So, State fiddles while Baghdad burns; nothing really surprising here. This is our you're-with-us-or-you’re-against-us mentality that’s poisoning our diplomatic efforts, which is really biting us in the ass. State is a mess and has been for a VERY long time. The military is learning from its mistakes, which are certainly numerous, but the State Department has failed to reform at all and it’s difficult to figure out what sort of conditions would have to occur to get Foggy Bottom to do so. I mean if the reconstruction catastrophe in Iraq didn’t do it, what can?