The revolt at the State Department

Washington Monthly founder Charles Peters used to say that the unofficial motto of the Foreign Service was, "Never leave the cities where the good bars are."

That's what came to mind as the story broke this week that two hundred Foreign Service Officers jammed a town hall meeting at the State Department Wednesday to tell their employers they refuse to accept forced assignments in Iraq.

It's a "death sentence," one of them said bitterly.

On Thursday Congressman Duncan Hunter, a Republican presidential candidate who is also the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telling her to fire any Foreign Service Officer who refuses orders to deploy to Iraq. Rep. Hunter suggested that the State Department could find many brave volunteers for the diplomatic mission in the hospital beds at Walter Reed.

Rep. Hunter has a point. People who work for the State Department are obligated to carry out the wishes of the current administration, no matter how long they have worked there and no matter how wrong they believe the administration's policy to be.

But forcing State Department employees to choose between going to Iraq and quitting their jobs does not solve the underlying problem, which is that the policy is not working.

It's not starting to work. It's not working a little bit.

It's not working at all.

The reason it's not working is simple. We have tried to place a democratic government on top of a Stalinist economy.

In Iraq, the government owns the oil, the oil industry, and all the major industries of the country. They are called "state-owned enterprises." Here's what that means to an Iraqi: if you get on the wrong side of the government, you will not have a job.

Individuals in Iraq have no choice but to stay close to the nearest group leader and hope to get a share of the jobs and cash when the group secures control of the government.

It's an economic system that rewards blind loyalty. In practice, that means the people who plan and carry out the most effective attacks on the rival groups will be rewarded, or their survivors will be.

There is no path for an individual to achieve economic security. There is no private sector. There is no competitive market for labor. There is only the government, a Sopranos-style mob, rewarding loyal supporters and executing suspected traitors.

When the government owns everything, it cannot be otherwise. The most ruthless people rise to power and they will do anything to stay there.

But hold on a minute, you might say. Didn't millions of people turn out to vote in Iraq? Yes, they did. But under Iraq's economic system, elections are just another way to fight for all-or-nothing power. Of course the Iraqis voted. They voted the way their group leaders told them to vote. To do anything else would risk exclusion from the stream of cash that comes to loyal supporters when the group finally gets hold of the government's revenue.

The only thing that will bring peace and political stability to Iraq is full privatization of the state-owned enterprises. The government cannot own anything. It is worse than useless to propose partial privatization that gives a share of revenue to foreign companies while the rest goes to the Iraqi government. As long as the government receives the revenue from Iraq's industries, there will be a bloody struggle for control of the government.

It is time for Americans to stop demonizing capitalism and private industry profits. We, of all people, should know that America is not prosperous because Americans are smarter, or harder-working, or more religious, or blessed by God in ways that other people are not. America is prosperous because the government doesn't own the economy. America is prosperous because a free, private economy -- capitalism -- rewards innovation, hard work, trade, cooperation and investment instead of blind loyalty, frightened submission, and bloody vengeance.

If we want to get out of Iraq, we should not be sending Foreign Service Officers there. We should be sending capitalists. We should be sending business executives and financial experts and people who understand how to set up a private banking system and a working legal system to safeguard the private property of individuals. We should be using what influence we have left to pressure the Iraqi government to cash out and sell shares of the state-owned enterprises.

If we want to get out of Iraq, we should stop pretending that everything will be fine if the Iraqi government will just use its oil revenue to build schools and hospitals and day care centers. We should stop pretending that government officials can learn to be benevolent, caring, paternalistic saviors. We should stop pretending that Iraqi leaders will someday share oil revenue equally with their rivals.

If we want to get out of Iraq, we should stop acting like we lost the Cold War and stand up for private property and individual rights.

If we're not willing to do that, the Foreign Service Officers are correct. No American should be sent to die in Iraq.

Elect Ron Paul and bring them all home immediately.


Copyright 2007.

Editor's note: You might be interested to read "The Motive for War: How to End the Violence in Iraq" at www.SusanShelley.com.

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