re: "Second Item"

CAA (that's me!) continued his response to Jeff Emanuel's post at RedState:

"Second, the “urgent” town hall meeting was nothing of the kind.
Town Hall meetings are held all the time, both at Main State, and at our misions around the world.

One FSO stood up and made stupid comments.

By contrast, every single FS position, which have to be re-filled
every 12 months, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, have been filled with volunteers every single year since 9/11. No FSOs have had to be ordered to go involuntarily. Ain’t happened.

Not that State hasn’t had to institute various incentives to make
that happen, but there are incentives (including financial ones) for military service in those places as well. It’s somewhat apples and oranges, but there are parallels.

This old Town Hall Meeting story is like a zombie. It rises from
the grave, no matter how many times discredited, whenever someone needs a handy club to bash the Foreign Service."

2/9