Thursday, December 07, 2006

Volunteering For Iraq Duty



This is not popular among civil servants, for fairly obvious reasons:

Apparently, folks haven't been stepping up to the plate. So you civil servants might not have a choice in the matter, if the Iraq Study Group gets its way. From the final report, Recommendation #74 reads:

In the short term, if not enough civilians volunteer to fill key positions in Iraq, civilian agencies must fill those positions with directed assignments. Steps should be taken to mitigate familial or financial hardships posed by directed assignments, including tax exclusions similar to those authorized for U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq.

This is such an odd "war" (using Bush's terminology for the Iraq occupation). For most of us the required sacrifice consists of shopping harder or buying one of those car magnets the Chinese make for us. But for some, the sacrifice asked is a rather frightening one.