The Foreign Service

Dear Jack y Bethyboo,

I've had another revelation for my future. I was reading an article in the New York Times (again with the Times) while looking for burried religious liberty in the news, which is the best part of my job. Anyway, I don't remember the specifics, but the article was a back pager about how along with the surge in troops to Iraq, Bush was calling for a surge in civilian personnel. Mostly, he was calling for civilian reconstruction - aka big companies. But there was also a section about how they desperately needed more Foreign Service Officers and were asking for federal employees to take a temporary shift of assignment and to go to Iraq. Now this got me thinking. "Foreign Service? What the fuck is that?"

Well, as it turns out the fuck is that it's essentially diplomatic staff. The foreign service is part of the State Department and does everything from manage an embassy to influencing foreign policy. I was interested at first primarily because, if you remember, my whole readjustment after finding out I wasn't a good enough writer for academia (cough, bastards) started because I felt somewhat guilty for living off the fat of the land while well over 2000 kids my age or younger had died, and had died fighting for America. Even though the war is incredibly stupid and has caused far more problems than it solved (I think the count is about 1,000,000 to 1) these kids were actively trying to change something and most probably believed, believe, that they were making the world a better place. I never really wanted to join the military, but I wanted to use the talents that I had to help solve the problem - to keep 18 year olds from dying for a pointless cause.

Anyway that's what led me to communications and politics: the possbility that I could somehow use writing to fix those kinds of problems. If you can inspire or convince the right person, you can do anything. Well, as I wasted a little time to check out the foreign service I saw that you could do just that - directly. I don't think I'll make the cut for Iraq. I'm not ready, and I don't want to give up on grad school at all - I don't think I was misguided in that plan. But after grad school it's at least something to consider. They divide you into tracks, one of which really appeals to me. They have a political track where your job would be to analyze the political situation in any given country and write back your suggestions to the state department. In a way it would be like specifically political intelligence and you have the chance to influence foreign policy. I don't think I'd do it for the rest of my life, but I could see doing it for as much as a decade.

Part of the attraction is of course just the appeal of being able to tell my grandkids stories of my time in Afghanistan, Ghana, or the Congo and how I helped to stop a civil war or genocide or invasion. Then again, just because I'm a democrat doesn't mean I'm immune to the call of king and country. And as a christian, the opportunity to further peace and religious liberty appeals to me more than anything.

I don't know that I want to do it. All I know is that I got really excited when I saw that it was an option, which is what led me to the BJC as well. So, I think it's at least worth considering. Let me know what you guys think.

Love,
The Other Boo