The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

76 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 R EFLECTIONS Bring a Pundit to Work Day B Y K EITH W. M INES M y son’s school had a “job shad- owing” day not long ago that brought him to the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, where I work in the political section. We had what I considered to be a very active day: finishing a scenesetter for President Bush’s upcoming visit to Canada, meeting with the head of a prominent think- tank, visiting the Canadian Parlia- ment during Question Period, and making a demarche to the Foreign Ministry on Sudan. But all that apparently did not add up to much for a 15-year-old, for when Jonathan wrote up his school report he said: “It isn’t very exciting work, not as boring as I imagined but still not very lively … Diplomatic work involves a lot of talking and discussing and brain- storming, [yet] not much is accom- plished, much like in school.” I guess I’m lucky he didn’t come back the next day and watch me write reports on our activities. His reaction was kind compared with what many others are saying about the Foreign Service, however, judging by many recent op-ed columns and editorials on Colin Powell’s imminent departure. Condi Rice is being urged to wield a firm hand against all the disloyal, insubor- dinate, rampaging diplomats who are supposedly indifferent or actively hostile to President Bush’s agenda. And these exhortations aren’t con- fined to the usual suspects, either: mainstream publications like The New Republic and the New York Times have run such columns. Somehow I’m not sure how my son missed all the excitement. Or was it the critics who missed some- thing? Either way, inspired by Jonathan’s experience, I’d like to propose that Dr. Rice institute the first-ever “bring a pundit to work day” so they can see for themselves what we do. Of course, they have already missed some of the really good opportunities to shadow diplomats. They could have come to Kabul in January 2002 when the new embassy’s staff was living in a bunker outside the chancery. Those who served there describe how shower- ing, food preparation and going to the latrine all occurred within 10 feet of each other. My colleagues didn’t have much time to exercise their “rampant disloyalty,” either; they were too busy trying to stay warm. I served in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq for seven months in 2003. We didn’t get many commentators shadowing us there, either. I wonder which part of my job would have interested them most: driving through the bomb-laden streets of Ramadi to get to my office each day? Going into Fallujah to set up a city council? Slipping out to the Syrian border to check on the newly formed border guards? It’s also too bad the mavens missed the engagement with foreign publics that Foreign Service officers conducted after the Abu Ghraib revelations. Far from exhib- iting hostility or indifference to the president’s agenda, we were the glue that held the coalition together at this difficult time. What our critics miss is that the business of foreign policy is messy because the world is messy. It will not get any tidier by silencing the views and combined experience of those with the most exposure to the world. The vast majority of State Department employees involve themselves assertively in debates as policy is being formed, and then just as assertively execute policy once decisions are made. The rare excep- tion no more impugns the honor of the entire diplomatic profession than Dr. Kevorkian dishonors the whole of the medical profession. So the pundits owe the Foreign Service an apology, though I’m not holding my breath for one. Meanwhile, my invitation stands. Come out and shadow me for a while, or go observe my colleagues in Mosul and Fallujah and Ramadi and Khandahar. Otherwise, you can eat my pin- striped shorts. n Since joining the Foreign Service in 1992, Keith Mines has served in Tel Aviv, Mogadishu, San Salvador, Port-au-Prince, Budapest, Kabul, the al-Anbar province of Iraq (on TDY) and Washington, D.C. He was the 2004 winner of AFSA’s William R. Rivkin Award for constructive dis- sent by a mid-level FSO. The stamp is courtesy of the AAFSW Bookfair “Stamp Corner.”