The US Foreign Service: They also serve

It's yet another sign of the failed leadership of the Bush Administration. For the first time since the Vietnam War, US Diplomats are being ordered to posts at the risk of losing their jobs.

Not surprisingly, the State Department has not had enough volunteers to fill all of the diplomatic positions in Iraq. In a late night email sent to employees, the State Department announced that it would begin involuntary assignments to Iraq. From The Raw Story:

Service in Baghdad was "a potential death sentence," said a man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran, the [Washington] Post reported.

"Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now."

From The Washington Post:

Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs.

At a town hall meeting in the department's main auditorium attended by hundreds of Foreign Service officers, some of them criticized fundamental aspects of State's personnel policies in Iraq. They took issue with the size of the embassy -- the biggest in U.S. history -- and the inadequate training they received before being sent to serve in a war zone. One woman said she returned from a tour in Basra with post-traumatic stress disorder only to find that the State Department would not authorize medical treatment.

In notices e-mailed to Foreign Service officers around the world late Friday night, Thomas wrote that State had decided to begin "directed assignments" to fill an anticipated shortfall of 48 diplomats in Iraq next summer. Separate e-mail letters were sent to about 250 officers selected as qualified for the posts. If enough of them did not volunteer, the letters said, some would be ordered to serve there.

The notices, which most diplomats first learned about from the news media as the e-mails sat in their office computers over the weekend, appeared to have catalyzed unease that has been swirling through the Foreign Service over issues that include Iraq, underfunding and inadequate recruitment, perceived disrespect from the U.S. military and the job performance of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

At least three department employees have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

As someone whose parents served all over the world as Foreign Service officers, this hits close to home. At least when my parents served, the United States was respected around the world, and the US government respected its employees. So although there was certainly some danger in their posts to places such as Karachi and Istanbul, they were never sent into a war zone.

This appears to be another attempt by the Bush-Cheney crowd to paint the picture of Iraq as situation improving. Indeed, it would be a wake up call to have to admit that we need to close the Embassy there. But instead of facing that truth, this Administration chooses to spend $1 billion to build a self-contained Embassy complex that could operate completely independently of the nation where it is located. How convenient.

Meanwhile, who's building the new US embassy in Baghdad?

Why, illegal immigrants, of course! Reporting from the Iraq Updates news service states:

More than 100 illegal Indian migrant workers are constructing the biggest and most expensive US embassy in the world in strife-torn Baghdad.

The US plans to open its “Vatican-sized” diplomatic enclave in Baghdad by September this year, and workers from the central Indian province of Andhra Pradesh are now racing against time to meet the deadline.

...

Since the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are tightening their immigration rules, unskilled labourers from backward districts now prefer strife-torn Iraq for jobs.

Since they are shipped to the bunkers by US military aircraft, visa and immigration rules are relaxed and the workers are free to stay as long as they wish.

Well, it is the American, way, isn't it?

Power cuts worsen as Iraqi grid nears collapse

Yet more proof why western efforts to create a sense of “nation” out of the historically soverign peoples of Iraq will not work. From the Guardian UK:

Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, according to officials.

Aziz al-Shimari, an electricity ministry spokesman, said at the weekend that power generation nationally was only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country were the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he added.

...

“We wait for the sunset to enjoy some coolness,” said Qassim Hussein, a 31-year-old labourer in Kerbala. “The people are fed up. There is no water, no electricity, there is nothing but death. I've even had more trouble with my wife these last three days. Everybody is on edge.”

...

Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran. But oil production has been hampered by insurgent and saboteur attacks, ranging rom bombing pipelines to siphoning off oil. The attacks have cost the country billions of dollars since the 2003 US invasion. Dilapidated infrastructure has also hindered refining, forcing Iraq to import large amounts of kerosene and other oil products.

Please read the entire story here.

No water, 1 hour of electricity, stifling heat: Life in Baghdad (for civillians)

A lot of the right-wingnuts assumed that the reports of no water in Baghdad were false. I've noticed that happens a lot when the first people to break a story like this one are the alternative news sources, rather than the mainstream media.

So, in order to demonstrate the veracity of this news story, here are a variety of news sources now reporting on the lack of water in 117 degree heat in Baghdad. (Most seem to be pulling from AP news reports. I'll keep looking for updates.)

Baghdad Without Running Water for Over a Day — Fox News

Residents and city officials said large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid cannot provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.

Water Taps Run Dry in Baghdad — ABC News

Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the blistering heat at the height of the Baghdad summer.

And from March 2007:

Lack of safe water endangers the health of Baghdad’s most deprived children — UNICEF

Even before the Iraq war began in 2003, millions of people were struggling with broken pipes and faulty systems. But since then, Iraq’s water problems have multiplied.

In the chaotic aftermath of the initial conflict, Iraq’s main pumping stations and water-treatment plants were stripped of vital equipment by looters. Acts of sabotage damaged infrastructure even further. Municipal water became dirty and contaminated – exposing children to dangerous and health-sapping waterborne diseases.

Baghdad, Iraq: 6 million people, 117 degrees and no water

I received the following email from the Answer Coalition:

By Richard Becker, Western Regional Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Friday, August 3, 2007

A crime against humanity committed by the occupying power.

For the past 24 hours, Baghdad has had virtually no running water.

Major parts of the city of six million people have lacked running water for six days, while daily high temperatures have ranged from 115 to 120 degrees. The tiny amount of water dripping through the pipes is causing many of those who must drink it to suffer acute intestinal illness.

According to reports, not enough electricity is available to run Baghdad’s water pumps. This in a country with vast energy resources.

Corporate media outlets—to the extent they have reported this horrific and mind-boggling story at all—have treated it as a failure on the part of Iraqis.

In reality, it is an appalling war crime committed by the occupying power, the U.S. military. It threatens the lives of tens of thousands of people in the short term and unthinkable numbers of people unless it is rectified immediately.

According to Article 55 of Geneva Conventions (1949) to which the U.S. government is a signatory: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."

Article 59 states: "If the whole or part of the population of an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal."

To say that a huge city deprived of running water is "inadequately supplied" would rank as one of the great understatements of human history.

Of course, the shortage of water—the most vital of all necessities—does not extend to the U.S. personnel and contractors occupying Iraq.

The U.S. government tries to relieve itself of its obligations by pretending that Iraq’s "sovereignty" was restored in June 2004. But that is just another hoax.

Since its illegal invasion and conquest of Iraq in the spring of 2003, the real state power in the country has been the U.S. military.

This latest catastrophe to afflict the Iraqi people is another poisonous fruit of imperialist occupation. Not even in the worst times during the U.S. blockade of Iraq from 1990-2003, did such a disaster occur.

The U.S. regime in Iraq must provide the people of Baghdad with relief in the short-term to avert unprecedented disaster. The U.S. occupation must come to an immediate end. The officials responsible for the terrible crimes committed against the Iraqi people must be held accountable. The U.S. government owes Iraq vast reparations for the death and destruction imposed on that society by an illegal war of aggression.