The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

ject the administration’s “message,” is incrementally taking over State’s pub- lic diplomacy operation. Our current policies directed at developing countries also fall far short of their purported goals, inviting disas- ter. Despite our rhetoric to the con- trary, we have gradually become part of the problem. In Africa, for exam- ple, the few continue to grow richer while more than half of the 900 mil- lion Africans live in destitution, earn- ing no more than a dollar a day — lit- erally not a cent better off than when I first set foot in Africa in 1968. Within State’s Africa Bureau, where I most recently handled public diplomacy for 16 countries of West Africa and served as the public affairs liaison on HIV/AIDS, I see distress- ingly few significant results of our poli- cies, despite the valiant efforts of offi- cers everywhere. This is particularly true of policies related to the $15 bil- lion HIV/AIDS program executed by the Office of the Global AIDS Coor- dinator with a constant eye to maxi- mizing positive domestic political pub- licity. The recent appointment of OGAC’s political-appointee head (and former CEO of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly) Randall Tobias to head USAID, as well as function as overall foreign assistance director, will result in even further politicization of our foreign assistance program. The administration’s indifference to suffering everywhere — now evi- dent both at home, post-Katrina, and in our activities internationally — makes it increasingly difficult to be optimistic. Despite the administra- tion’s truly massive PR, its HIV/AIDS policy will eventually become a per- manent blot on our record as millions perish unnecessarily. This policy is making an entire generation of Africans unwilling pawns in its quest to impress American voters with its own perceived morality. The disease is the biggest threat faced by Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s 40 million HIV/AIDS patients live. It contributes to a marked drop in productivity and to increased despair and is feeding a growth in political instability. Of the 40 million stricken, only 471,000 now receive anti-viral treatment from our $15 billion program. African leader- ships have been pushed by the U.S. to emphasize abstinence and de-empha- size condom use — or lose funding. These policies will lead to a reversal of progress in the treatment of AIDS. Simply stated, Africans in the millions are expendable if it serves the re-elec- tion needs of politicians. This, cou- pled with African leaderships some- times mired in increasingly skillfully- executed corruption (which we ver- bally criticize but often effectively ignore when in our perceived “inter- est” to do so) simply adds to growing frustration. Careerism at State cripples critical thinking. And within the department’s internal bureaucracy, professional punishment and sophisticated, target- ed retribution for any deviation from “the message” are increasingly effec- tive and expertly hidden behind a shield of multiple maneuvers using personnel system “mechanisms” de- signed and scripted for deniability. Officers are discredited, promotions, tenure and assignments jeopardized, careers destroyed. Edward R. Murrow said that we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. It is truer than ever today, when loyalty and being “on message” trump critical analysis and forthright honesty. I fully realize that for others in the department who may privately share my views, my decision to depart may be unacceptably costly in personal terms. I personally regret, however, that I did not take this action earlier. I clung to the hope that we would right ourselves. Unfortunately that has not happened in the years since 9/11 and I do not see it on the horizon. I hardly believe that my premature departure from State will have any effect on the course of U.S. foreign policy, but I am compelled to add another voice to what I hope becomes a groundswell against the directions we have taken. Were I to remain silent any longer, I would be con- tributing to this deception by lending credence to the illusion that things are as they ought to be. They are not. Peggy S. Zabriskie FSO, newly retired Holetown, Barbados n 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 6 L E T T E R S u Send your letters to: journal@afsa.org . Note that all letters are subject to editing for style, format and length.