Maybe I’m a little biased, considering I had a friend get his face shredded by an IED while he was working with the Army Corps of Engineers.  Consider as well that in less than two years, I’ll be training to deploy myself.  My chances of deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan within my first five years of service (not including time at the Academy) are pretty darn high.

But I firmly believe that I can be forgiven for thinking these guys are frigging unbelievable.

Here’s the short story: Next year, 48 Foreign Service Officer positions come open to serve in Baghdad.  In the Green Zone- the air conditioned heart of the city, working in one of the most protected embassies in the world.

48 positions.  There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 FSOs eligible for the positions.

They can’t find 50 men and women to serve their country in theatre when the chips are down.  What.  The.  Hell.

We’ve talked before on this blog about how dangerous it is for the Armed Forces to be clearing rubble and performing other tasks that aren’t normally considered Army-proof.  Now we have an inkling as to why: No one else wants to go.

In the interests of fairness: there are a few military personnel who have denied service in Iraq.  One is currently on hold before his court martial.  Another got a bad conduct discharge and was busted a few ranks.  In the UK, a doctor was put in prison for refusing service.

Someone else who thinks this is ridiculous.

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