Wanted: A Few Good Iraqis. Or Jordanians. Or . . . Anybody?
The Pentagon and the State Department have been squabbling quite publicly over State's request to have the already-stretched military fill about 40 percent of the 300 new State jobs in Iraq created by the administration's latest rebuilding plan.</br></br>Seems the military isn't the only one balking at working there. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is finding it increasingly difficult to get local Iraqis to work there because of what one senior official at the embassy called the "precarious security situation" in the country.</br></br>Last year, 35 local employees resigned, "nearly all due to security issues," the official said. The State Department is authorized to hire 136 local people for jobs in the embassy, but right now only 47 are filled by Iraqis. Thirteen more are filled by Jordanians brought over in a program specifically set up to fill the chronic gap.</br></br>Even with the Jordanians, the "ever-growing" shortage of local Iraqis "seriously impacts on our ability to carry out the normal, day-to-day operations of the embassy," the official said. They can't find Iraqis to fill the solid-paying jobs even in a country where the unemployment rate is estimated to be 25 to 40 percent.</br></br>Two years ago, the department sent out pleas for volunteers to go to Iraq, but the responses were mostly from folks who could fill only low-level jobs. There are now a number of important mid-level jobs the embassy needs to fill with people from the region.