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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"I resigned from the U.S. Department of State yesterday. This article explains why"
U.S. Diplomats Resignation Signals Wider Exodus From State Departmenthttp://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/09/u-s-diplomat-resigns-warning-of-state-departments-diminished-role-diplomacy-national-security-tillerson-africa-somalia-south-sudan/
One diplomat's stinging resignation letter offers a glimpse into declining morale at the State Department under Trump.
Elizabeth Shackelford, who most recently served as a political officer based in Nairobi for the U.S. mission to Somalia, wrote to Tillerson that she reluctantly had decided to quit because the administration had abandoned human rights as a priority and shown disdain for the State Departments diplomatic work, according to her letter, obtained by Foreign Policy.
I have deep respect for the career Foreign and Civil Service staff who, despite the stinging disrespect this Administration has shown our profession, continue the struggle to keep our foreign policy on the positive trajectory necessary to avert global disaster in increasingly dangerous times, Shackelford wrote in her Nov. 7 letter, which is published below. One phrase was redacted on Shackelfords request.
With each passing day, however, this task grows more futile, driving the Departments experienced and talented staff away in ever greater numbers, she wrote. . . .
Shes emblematic of what were losing across the board, said one of Shackelfords former State Department colleagues. She is the best among us. We should not be losing the best among us. And that should concern people that we are, the former colleague said.
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Link to tweet
The Blue Flower
(5,442 posts)"What should we do today, Brain?" "I know, let's wreck America's influence and standing in the world."
Perseus
(4,341 posts)The Department?s position within the interagency has also diminished, as we have
ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive US. foreign policy, at the behest of
the White House but to our detriment as a nation. The trend in this direction will
accelerate further with the budget and staffing cuts you are championing.
and this sentence is key:
"as we have ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive US. foreign policy"
This is the methodology for bringing dictatorship into a country, you start giving the military more, empowering them. Anyone who thinks that many in the military will not choose "power over country" needs to freshen up on history, it is an old trick dictators use, they pour the military with power, money, importance, the dictator suddenly promotes people to higher ranks without any merit, the trick is loyalty, and these new "generals" will become loyal. The military is key to a dictatorship, just look around the World and tell me which dictatorship does not have the military as its main tool for enforcing the new rules.
Muller better complete his investigation soon, and may many of these crooks (the Trumps, Pence, McConnell, Ryan, Tillerson, etc.) be taken out of the sit of power, the destruction these people have planned for the USA will take decades to fix.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)Russian oligarchs
bdamomma
(63,875 posts)we are becoming more isolated due to this fucking man, he is a true threat to all of us.
Putin is getting his wish he hated the State Department, and Trump is doing his bidding. Trump is being blackmailed by Putin. Don't you think?
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)gademocrat7
(10,659 posts)The assault on our country by this evil grifter and his cabal must stop.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)than the dismantling of our state dept. We're fucked. It's a coup.
njcpa1978
(114 posts)Simple, the State Department just has to tell Pres. Tweetstorm that is all about him. How the embassy personnel love him. That we need more embassies so they can collect the fan mail from the local citizens. That he can use the embassies to check out new hotel locations for the business that he is no longer involved in. Yeah Donnie, it is all about you.
Farmer-Rick
(10,185 posts)I'm really starting to doubt that our intelligence agencies and justice system can do anything about it.
Putin is in charge. Look at the crushed, impotent and subservient Russian people. That will be the American people in a few years.
FakeNoose
(32,645 posts)I'm not a big fan of country western music, but that song has been ringing in my ears lately.
When well-trained, educated career diplomats who do an amazing and difficult job can't take it any more, what hope is there for the rest of us? Elizabeth Shackelford is not grandstanding, nor is she angling for a higher salary, she's just HAD IT UP TO HERE. There's something seriously wrong at the State Department and Rex Tillerson is the problem, not the solution.
Last January a number of excellent long-standing career diplomats were laid off and treated like extra shift workers at the Seven-11, while the remaining employees at the State Dept. have been trying to cover conscientiously. Because that's the kind of people they are, but it can only continue for so long. Congress needs to look into this, they need to hold hearings and make Tillerson provide some answers.