Back Door Diplomats: Screw Merit
Daniel Sickles
Let it stand for uncounted years, to tell the story of Tammany's devotion to the country in time of war.
~ Gen. Daniel Sickles
I had this brainstorm. Let's thoroughly democratize our military. Open it up further to a broader diversity of people. What, you say? Why, everybody knows that the U.S. armed services are among the most racially and ethnically integrated entities in America. And they just opened the ranks up to transgender candidates after also eliminating a ban on gays. What more can they do?
Our military services recruit officers through one of four programs: via one of the service academies, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), the Officer Candidate School, and direct appointment. The latter is used to recruit highly specialized individuals with needed skills sets, e.g., lawyers, medical doctors, chaplains. We need a fifth door - actually a back door to recruit majors through generals, lieutenant commanders through admirals, irrespective of merit. We need to revert to the system in place prior to the end of the Civil War when any moneyed dolt could buy himself a flag officer job. In a rare fit of conscience, Congress outlawed the practice after the public recoiled at the needless slaughter brought on by incompetent political cronies who had been appointed generals - men like Daniel Sickles. A colorful Tammany Hall stalwart who pioneered temporary insanity as a legal defense after he killed his wife's lover, this "political general's" insubordination at Gettysburg cost more than 4,000 Union casualties. Later, as U.S. Minister to Spain, Sickles pursued his reputation as a womanizer in the Spanish royal court and was rumored to have had an affair with Queen Isabella II. But that was then and this is now.
Before you chalk me up with the likes of Katrina Pierson and click the Home icon to get yourself to saner digital territory, hear me out. I'm not as crazy as I sound. Just glance at my credentials, i.e., the ones I don't conceal.
But, "You're daft!" you say. Why, we cannot allow our honored military to be diluted with the beneficiaries of political patronage. Lives are at stake! We must defend the nation! Do that and the next thing you know, the Chinese will be building air fields in the U.S. Virgin Islands. No more Dan Sickleses. Please!! Entry into the armed services must remain strictly merit-based if we are to protect our national security.
Yes indeed. We must vigorously keep the stink of patronage out of the ranks of those who wage war. But for those who wage peace? Different story.
You see, some devilish denizens on the Hill have snuck into the draft Senate bill authorizing appropriations for the Department of State for 2017 language which would establish yet another back door into the U.S. Foreign Service. Section 206 laments that traditional induction "precludes the recruitment of many patriotic, highly skilled, talented, and experienced mid-career professionals who wish to join public service and contribute to the work of the Foreign Service, but are not in a position to restart their careers as entry-level government employees." Like a modern equivalent of Dan Sickles perchance?
The language calls for lateral recruitment of individuals who would skip the junior ranks (2nd lieutenant to captain equivalents) as well as the standard Foreign Service junior officer training regimen. And to top it off, these "patriotic" Americans would also skip most of the requisite entry-level dirty work, e.g., visa officer at Consulate Juarez. This is like getting into the U.S. Marines with no prior military experience at the rank of major, skipping boot camp and Officer Candidate School and being deployed to a cushy desk job at the Pentagon in lieu of a tour of duty in Fallujah. Nice deal if you can get it!
What in the world can be behind this interesting new twist to mint fresh mid-level diplomats without going through all the inconvenient fuss of rigorous vetting, training and up-through-the-ranks professional development? Could it be, alas, thinly disguised political corruption, i.e., a lawful spoils system?
Here's what I conjure up in my perfervid, admittedly over-active, imagination. Seeing the writing on the wall, that is, a Trumpocalypse in November, a whole bunch of Congressional staffers on the Republican side rightfully fear losing their jobs as the relentless down ballot avalanche wipes out whole GOP sincecure civilizations. These folks wake up in cold sweats from nightmare visions of LGBT hordes descending on the Capitol slashing and burning one formerly Republican-dominated subcommittee after another, replacing the staff with Stepford Wives-like liberal automotons fabricated in Massachusetts by Elizabeth Warren. These people will suddenly need new careers with the same kind of prestige and government paycheck they're used to. Ergo, the Foreign Service!
It is no coincidence that Republican Senator from Tennessee Bob Corker, also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is sponsoring this bill. Members of both parties take care of their own when facing imminent defeat at the polls. It's no stretch of the imagination to surmise that GOP staffers went to Boss Bob, hats in hand, imploring, "O, free us from the wrath of the Democrats, Lord!" Hence the deviously accommodating language of Section 206. Of course, there is the added benefit of any politician, from the Prez on down, being able to use this kind of back door to reward all manner of undeserving cronies at the expense of disposable career folks.
In fact, as I've written extensively in past published articles and blog posts, using the State Department as a patronage waste dump has long been a bipartisan game. In fact, Democrat Obama may be the worst offender in modern times. A quick review of the Department's organizational chart reveals the existence of no less than 18 "Special Envoys," 16 "Special Representatives," 6 "Ambassadors-at-Large," 14 "Coordinators," 7 "Special Advisors," 1 "Senior Advisor," 1 "Senior Official," 1 "Personal Representative", and 1 "Senior Representative." These amount to a grand total of 65 superfluous "senior" something-or-others whose portfolios range from "Combating Anti-Semitism" to building "Global Partnerships" (whatever that is). Each of these "senior" factotums has a staff and a budget at great cost to the taxpayers. And these don't include the many more patronage sinecures larded throughout the regular bureaucracy and many ambassadorships sold to fat cat donors. State's organizational structure is a management consultant's nightmare, with metastasized offices covering overlapping and questionable duties. Twenty years ago, there were 4 Special Coordinators, 3 Special Advisors and 1 Ambassador-at-Large - that is, 8 floating senior positions; and these had concrete, usually finite functions, such as coordinating disaster relief for Haiti and managing counterterrorism policy.
Section 206 has not gone unnoticed. Twelve former presidents of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), State's quasi-union, wrote a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) expressing “deep concern and opposition to Section 206 of the 2017 State Authorization Bill” which would create “an alternate hiring mechanism” for entry into the Foreign Service. "Lateral entry programs are neither rigorous nor impartial. There have been several lateral entry programs during our collective service. All have been vehicles for abuse through the hiring of personal and political cronies of those administering the lateral entry." A back door into the mid-level ranks, they note, would only further add to current bloat and essentially wreck the promotion prospects of career FSO's. In the parlance of my rural roots: Such a program is about as needed as wings on a pig.
But does anyone really care? To be blunt, not really. Since the war of independence through the many armed conflicts since, Americans have been indoctrinated to revere our outstanding military establishment. And the large veteran population is well organized to lobby for their service branches and for benefits. Hollywood has done more to hold our warrior class on a pedestal than any other media. But, diplomacy and diplomats? Few citizens know or care about the peacemakers. And the latter lack a broad domestic constituency to protect and promote the Foreign Service and Department of State. The populism which is ingrained in our political culture worships muscle over gray matter. Hence, the political class's lack of compunction to corrupt the U.S. diplomatic establishment through blatant spoils patronage - something that is off-limits with our armed services. It is lost on them that the nation's national security is equally dependent upon effective diplomacy as it is on fighting ability. As long as the politicos burden the Department of State with more Section 206's, expect to see diplomacy lag and the risk of more wars rise.
See also:
Why Does America Send So Many Stupid, Unqualified Hacks Overseas?
Russian Diplomats Are Eating America's Lunch