The Foreign Service Journal, December 2007

Powell, who later, as Secretary of State, opened the way to the invasion of Iraq, creating the need for the new counterinsurgency doctrine. Sewall notes that the new field manual recognizes the primacy of politics, and rightly so. But politics can be intractable. As this is written, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, reflecting on the political impasse in Iraq, has told Congress, “I cannot guarantee success.” In his 1962 FSJ article, Under Secretary Johnson wrote that it was difficult to persuade a govern- ment threatened by subversion or insurgency to take remedial measures toward reform: “This calls for the utmost skills of our profession for it is always a difficult task and sometimes an impossible one.” Sewall is appropriately realistic in pointing out the challenges ahead to organize anew for a counterinsur- gency doctrine. Although the U.S. government did organize a successful counterinsurgency strategy for the pacification of Vietnam, counter- insurgency doctrine barely survived the bitter memories of our eventual defeat. The disengagement strategies for Iraq seem to be equally bleak. Will counterinsurgency survive it? Alfred R. Barr FSO, retired Washington, D.C. Modernize Hiring Ludovic Hood’s letter in your September issue, “The Case for Mid- Level Entry,” was right on the money. From a human resources point of view, the current Foreign Service recruit- ment and promotion system is ineffi- cient, not merit-based. It wastes a lot of talent and management skills that could be put to work for the State De- partment and for America, right away. The current system directs un- tenured generalists to visa lines around the world for up to four years. While the department obtains a signif- icant amount of revenue from visa application fees, that does not justify the current practice. Does the De- partment of Homeland Security staff airport passport control lines with Ph.D.-holders and lawyers? Other options do exist. Similarly, at a time when the image of the United States is plummeting abroad, we recruit individuals with 10 years of press or public relations experience in the private sector only to stick them on the visa line for three years. Further, being against mid-level D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 L E T T E R S