The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 0 Danner reported in The New York Re- view of Books that 73 percent of Re- publicans believed they were there. George Bush’s second term pro- duced much of the disaster we are now working our way through. Had Du- elfer’s message been absorbed by the electorate in 2004, perhaps many of our difficulties would have been averted. Unfortunately, there is a lesson here for those of us in the foreign affairs community: the American public does not pay much attention to what we do. Alfred R. Barr FSO, retired Washington, D.C. Enough with the Amateurs Judging by the record so far, Presi- dent Barack Obama may win the mod- ern sweepstakes for naming the most political appointees to vacant embass- ies. Given his earlier rhetoric, this would seem a surprising outcome. The past 30 years have clearly prov- en that the requirement of the 1980 Foreign Service Act that all nominees, including political appointees, bring to the job concrete qualifications like lan- guage and area skills is a dead letter. Under the circumstances, I think we should finally reconcile ourselves to the reality that our career is doomed to see the best positions, both at home and abroad, given to often-unqualified am- ateurs. Sadly, diplomacy is simply not con- sidered a profession in the U.S., and there are no signs that this will soon change. I’mnot serious about this idea, but wouldn’t it be nice if someone could sue the U.S. government over its repeated violation of the Foreign Serv- ice Act? ■ Robert F. Illing FSO, retired Porto, Portugal L E T T E R S