A Whole Lot of Nerve

I received my federal union newsletter today and was shocked by an article which talked about the Iraq Study Group's recommendation calling for directed assignments of federal employees to Iraq. As an attorney I always like to read the primary source so I downloaded the Iraq Study Group's report. On page 60 there is a section titled U.S. personnel. The introduction to that section states, among other things, "The nature of the mission in Iraq is unfamiliar and dangerous, and the United States has had great difficulty filling civilian assignments in Iraq with sufficient numbers of properly trained personnel at the appropriate rank." The kicker is Recommendation 74 which states "In the short term, if not enough civilians volunteer to fill key
positions in Iraq, civilian agencies must fill those positions with directed assignments. Steps should be taken to mitigate familial or financial hardships posed by directed assignments, including tax exclusions similar to those authorized for U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq."

Pardon my language because I do not know any other way to truly capture my anger and frustration, but these people have a lot of balls. I think it is the height of irresponsibility to suggest that federal employees should be deployed to Iraq when our troops should not even be there. And if you pay close attention to the language, it is not limited to State Department or foreign service personnel, who, in fact, may have an expectation of overseas assignment. The fact that this was a bipartisan group of high profile former politicians makes me question the state of political leadership in this country.

The key members of the group are James A. Baker, III, Lee H. Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Edwin Meese III, Sandra Day O’Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, Charles S. Robb, and Alan K. Simpson. Here is my recommendation to them and the dozens of others involved in this undertaking: all of you have decades of experience in politics and business, you go the hell to Iraq and fix what Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld broke.

Pass It On

If you have any unwanted items that you cannot sell or donate to charity, I recommend giving it to someone else using www.freecycle.org. Freecycle is a nonprofit group that allows individuals to post ads offering or requesting goods free of charge. The idea is that by giving your unwanted items to someone else you are saving space in landfills. There are Freecycle groups throughout the United States and there is likely a local group near you. By joining a local group you have the ability to post ads. My wife and I have used Freecycle for about 2 years giving away a variety of goods. The people who have responded to our ads are pleasant and we know the items will be put to good use. The next time you have an unwanted item instead of throwing it away, pass it on using Freecycle.

The President That Cried Wolf

In his speech on Wednesday President Bush said "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home." Pardon me if I am a little skeptical about this statement but how many times have we heard from the Administration about so called "crucial moments" in Iraq. Also, we have been hearing about new plans for Iraq for months and all we get is an increase in troops by 21,500. I am not a military planner but if your military commanders on the ground are competent shouldn't coming up with a request for more troops take a matter of days and not months. We have been in Iraq over 3 years surely we have learned something. News reports state that the troop increase will cost about $5.6 billion. Wouldn't this money be better spent on alternative energy research, universal health care coverage, or any of the other pressing problems facing the nation. Noon on January 20, 2009 can't come soon enough.