The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

The Neocon Agenda The twin articles on foreign policy during the next two years (“A Bleak Outlook” by Dennis Jett and “A Sound Strategy” by Joshua Muravchik, FSJ , February) were balanced in every respect except one: the article by Jett was accompanied by a short bio of the author but the article by Muravchik was not. [Editor’s Note: A correction note about this inadvertent omission ran in the March issue.] A quick Google search of Murav- chik’s background revealed exactly what I thought: this ardent neocon- servative is associated with hawkish think tanks such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, where he is on the advisory board. The dirty little secret of the neo- conservatives who urged unilateral aggression in Iraq, and who now urge the same in Iran, is that they are pro- moting the foreign policy of Israel, not that of the United States. These Israel-Firsters must contort reason and logic in order to convince us that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Mah- moud Ahmadinejad’s Iran are threats to the United States through a sup- posed connection to Osama bin La- den’s al-Qaida — an organization which really is a threat to the United States. So instead of concentrating our efforts in Afghanistan — finding, cap- turing and killing the leaders of the organization that attacked us —we are bogged down in a quagmire called “The Long War” by those who believe it is necessary. Everyone else calls it “The Unnecessary War,” and believes it has lasted too long. I add my voice to those like former President Jimmy Carter, who advo- cates a truly even-handed U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox Jr., whose excellent article in the Decem- ber Journal (“The Holy Land: Can Peace Be Rescued?”) builds a persua- sive case for the sort of intervention in the Middle East that could actually yield results. To the neoconservatives who have led us astray once and who seek to do so again, I say: sit down and shut up. Your agenda has been thor- oughly discredited. Lewis K. Elbinger FSO Air War College Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. Requesting a Jett-ison Your February focus section arti- cles on the next two years of foreign policy were timely, and the topic was well chosen. Unfortunately, your series was marred by yet another com- pletely unbalanced tirade by Dennis Jett against the current administration. This is not the first time you have devoted space to this inveterate Bush- basher, who obviously has some bitter grudge against those he once served. In introducing the companion piece by Joshua Muravchik, which brings a right-wing perspective to the debate, you hasten to assert that Mr. Mura- vchik’s “prescription is emphatically not the view of the Journal , the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board, etc.” Are we then left to conclude that Mr. Jett’s grossly subjective anti-administra- tion arguments do reflect those of the Journal and its board? It seems to me that our profession- al Journal must reflect all carefully considered opinions, without gratu- itous expressions of support, or lack thereof. Moreover, now that Mr. Jett has had several occasions to vent his spleen on our pages, do us a favor and give him a long rest. Michael G. Wygant FSO, retired Scarborough, Maine Iraq Reconstruction Specialists The State Department is having difficulty finding the technical special- ists, such as agronomists, engineers and police officers, for Iraq reconstruction. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was recently quoted in the Washington Post as saying “no Foreign Service in the world has those people.” But we once did. U.S. foreign aid agencies from the 1950s to the 1970s had many such specialists, both career and contract, American and local-hire. In Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zaire, I directed scores of agricultural experts, education and health professionals, infrastructure engineers, public safety officers and others, who carried out countless development and recon- struction projects in conjunction with local officials. Such experts were doing the same in other Cold War frontier countries such as Turkey, India, Thailand and South Korea. Unfortunately, beginning in the late 1970s, the executive branch and Con- gress regularly cut the budget and staff L ETTERS 6 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 7