The Foreign Service Journal, March 2005

transport planes small enough to land on the Baghdad Airport’s runway, the Los Angeles Times reported last July, while in June insurgents made off with armored Toyota Land Cruisers bound for the embassy from Amman, Jordan. Conditions at the embassy remain difficult. Officers are housed in makeshift trailers. Only recently has State identified a site for a new embassy compound and begun plan- ning for its construction. Movement outside the “Green Zone,” protected by U.S. forces, is dangerous. Because of the security threats posed by terrorists, new recruits undergo firearms training at a State Department facility in West Virginia before heading to Baghdad. (Only in a few previous instances have diplomats been required to learn to use guns.) In addition, they are learning about bombs, particularly the type that Iraqi insurgents have used so effectively along Baghdad’s road- sides. That’s a situation that worries some Foreign Service veterans, who wonder whether America’s diplomats will be perceived as part of the U.S. military. What makes American diplomacy successful, they say, is the ability of Foreign Service officers to gain the trust of the foreigners and governments they work with. Given security constraints, State officers “are not able to get out of the Green Zone very easily,” says former U.S. ambassador Mark Hambley. “You need good political reporting, but if they can’t get out and circulate amongst Iraqis, that’s a situation to address very carefully.” Hambley recalls that during his time as chief of mis- F O C U S M A R C H 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 Some Foreign Service veterans wonder how their colleagues in Iraq can do their jobs under such heavy security restrictions. T HE R EMINGTON