Foggy Bottom cry babies

The Washington Post report on a Townhall meeting at the State Department had this gem from one of the participants:

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Service in Iraq is "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause.

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Didn't we just learn that no one guarded by Blackwater has lost their life and isn't Blackwater's primary mission in Iraq to guard the embassy and its people? The Post should have indicated how many people from the State Department have been killed in Iraq just to put this whiner's statement in context.

Update: There have been apparently three deaths of State Department people serving in Iraq. I still do not know the circumstances of those deaths. This is out of a total of 1500 who have served there and as Bill Kristol and Dean Barnett point out:

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At the same time, more State Department employees have been killed by al Qaeda and allied groups outside Iraq, in East Africa and Jordan and elsewhere, in recent years. Does their sacrifice count for nothing? Is the State Department not also involved in fighting these brutal terrorists? Are timidity and grievance-mongering appropriate for senior U.S. government officials engaged in the conduct of the nation's foreign policy?

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I still think those who refuse service in Iraq should be fired. There are plenty of retired and retiring military people with better skills and considerably better attitudes to take their place.