Samantha Power: How Mike Pompeo Could Save the State Department.

[elleng]

'Two days after the 2016 presidential election, I held a town hall at the United States Mission to the United Nations. American diplomats were in shock; the president-elect had pledged to undo much of what we had helped achieve internationally.

One of the first people who got up to speak, a Foreign Service officer, said: “I don’t agree with a lot of the things Trump has said. But he doesn’t seem to have a lot of people experienced in foreign policy in his inner circle. He and his team will need us. And we will have the same duty to our country — and the same privilege of serving our country — on Jan. 20, as we had when we served George W. Bush and Barack Obama.” This sentiment was echoed by speaker after speaker.

Many of them, along with some of our most capable diplomats, have since left government. Ridiculed as “Obama holdovers” and unable to defend policies that depart so markedly from American interests, our diplomatic corps has been hollowed out. If Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., wins confirmation as Rex Tillerson’s replacement as secretary of state, fixing this would become his responsibility. He can’t change the president, but he can make it his mission to revitalize America’s diplomatic corps and get back to trying to solve problems in the real world.

Mr. Pompeo should start by putting forward nominations for dozens of open foreign ambassadorships (including key posts like Egypt, Jordan, South Korea, Turkey and South Africa). This would give us the means of engaging officials in those countries — to promote investment, protect Americans abroad and combat terrorism. It would also send a signal that diplomats matter.

We also need to attract new Foreign Service officers. Hiring declined by more than a third from 2016 to 2017, and the number of young people seeking to take the Foreign Service exam has dropped significantly from the rates seen during the previous two administrations.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/opinion/samantha-power-pompeo-state-department.html?

[dhill926]

1. fat chance of this happening....

they just want to tear shit down....

[bronxiteforever]

2. +1

[hatrack]

3. Oh, bullshit . . . .

Not his job. His job is destroy, so Magic Jeebus Man can come down from the sky and rule 'Murca!!

[lagomorph777]

6. Putin hired the Trump Organization to destroy the State Department (and the rest of the country)

Magic Jeebus Dude has nothing to do with it.

[hatrack]

7. Check Pompeo's record at CIA

From Foreign Policy:

EDIT

Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, has said previously that Islamist terrorists will “continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ is our savior is truly the only solution for our world.” The concerns are not that Pompeo is religious but that his religious convictions are bleeding over into the CIA.

According to four sources familiar with the matter, Pompeo, who attends weekly Bible studies held in government buildings, referenced God and Christianity repeatedly in his first all-hands speech and in a recent trip report while traveling overseas. According to a profile by the Washington Post’s Greg Miller, Pompeo is working on starting a chaplaincy for the CIA campus like the military has.
The CIA did not dispute these events. “Director Pompeo is a man of faith,” the spokesperson said. “The idea that he should not practice his faith because he is Director of CIA is absurd.”

Michael Weinstein, a former Air Force officer who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says he has been seeing increasing complaints from those inside the intelligence community. Weinstein’s foundation, which focuses on preventing religious pressure from creeping into the military, also has clients in the intelligence community, mostly from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

According to Weinstein, agency employees don’t want to go public with their complaints because of fear of retribution or being labeled as “leakers.” They don’t typically file formal complaints within the government. But certain things are making them especially uncomfortable, such as officials signing off with the phrase “have a blessed day.”

EDIT

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/08/more-white-more-male-more-jesus-cia-employees-fear-pompeo-is-quietly-killing-the-agencys-diversity-mandate/

[lagomorph777]

8. Oh, gods - that's effing creepy and even scarier than a pure geopolitical putsch.

But Putin doesn't care - any kind of crazy will do the job.

[shadowmayor]

4. When pigs fly

Ain't gonna happen never!

[malthaussen]

5. Hey, Samantha, I have a bridge to sell you...

... of course, she doesn't say Mr Pompeo will do these things, just that he should.

-- Mal