Rice blamed for staff shortage, low morale among US diplomats

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Saddled by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US State Department faces an acute staff shortage amid "worsening morale," according to a study blaming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for the problem.

The report by the influential Foreign Affairs Council, comprising mostly senior retired US diplomats and ambassadors, said the department faced a shortage of 1,100 staff and that in the "first two years of Secretary Rice's stewardship almost no net new resources have been realized."

Rice took office in January 2005, facing the full impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"My own view is that the foreign service is at the front edge of a personnel crisis and if something isn't done about what we have identified here as 'job...