The American Spectator

Reader Mail

American Muscle

11.7.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 5)

FIRE AWAY
Re: George H. Wittman's A Revolting Development and Ken Shreve's letter (under "Wusses From State") in Reader Mail's Foreign Service Slackers:

Those in the State Department chanting "Hell no! We won't go!" at the prospect of being assigned to Baghdad should remember what President Ronald Reagan did to more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers back in the summer of 1981. He fired them.
-- Stan Welli
Aurora, Illinois

It appears Ken Shreve, in his rush to attack the Bush administration, missed these tidbits of news in the Washington Times that TAS covered, "The growing pressure on State Department personnel to serve in Iraq, which culminated in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's decision to resort to forced assignments...Last year...Miss Rice changed the bidding and assignment system of the Foreign Service. No assignments were allowed elsewhere in the world until those "high-priority" positions were filled...About 200 officers have been identified as "prime candidates" and given until Nov. 13 to present medical or other compelling reasons that could spare them an Iraq assignment. Those who refuse to go without such reasons could be expelled from the Foreign Service." This is just one more illustration that President Bush is the real Reagan conservative while his critics on the right are unwitting tools of the liberal/Democrat/socialist propaganda machine.

Instead of merely advocating a few firings conservatives should be demanding civil service reform that abolishes the union and polarizing Democrat partisanship in the Federal bureaucracy. That would help restore a modicum of patriotic service in the Federal bureaucracy. Time to think outside the box conservatives.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Missing Scandals:

Is Bob forgetting Ahmed Chalabi and Curveball's tales of Scary Saddam that were promoted by Right and Left Establishment press types? And what about Jeff Gannon-Guckert, the fake reporter by day, male prostitute at night character that fooled Rush and Hannity? Rush, my goodness, he still has Curveball propaganda on his website.

We in the reality based community largely agree with that the dishonesty of "liberal Establishment" reporting is epidemic, but, sorry, Bob, AmSpec joined the "liberal Establishment" a few years ago.
-- Charles Bowen

Letter to the Editor

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