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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (13285)	10/22/2003 9:44:45 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 794334

Again, a complex issue reduced to simplicities. It’s hard to comment on Mowbray’s work without reading it, and the review is cursory, but it’s worth remembering that diplomats in Saudi Arabia have generally been sent there with two dominating purposes: keep the oil flowing and maintain the best possible relations with the regime. That last purpose is often questioned, but the determination has generally been made – at levels well above State – that the current regime, while lousy, is the best we’re likely to get. Diplomats abroad, in many countries, are often caught between the desire on the home front for strident posturing and the reality that in many places stridency is the worst possible way to accomplish a result. As is often the case, people responsible for negotiating compromises often get a lot of abuse from people on both sides of the compromise, especially extremists. The visa issue was clearly a major mistake, and citizen services are undoubtedly a weak spot in many foreign missions, but in general the issues here are a lot more complicated than their portrayals by the Mowbrays and Gingriches of the world. I don't see the idea of increasing the number of appointees in key spots as much of a solution. A lot of these guys may be praised for their loyalty to the President, but they are often pretty clueless about the reality of trying to accomplish a given result in a foreign country. Appointed diplomats often fail to recognize that foreign leaders are accountable to their people and to their national interests, not to ours.