US moves diplomats out of Europe

The US is to reduce the number of its diplomats posted to Europe, and will send more to other countries, including China, India, Nigeria and Lebanon.

“America must begin to reposition our diplomatic forces around the world,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

She said it was an anomaly that the US had the same staff levels in Germany as in India, more than 10 times the size.

She said the redeployment would help foster democratic and economic change.

Ms Rice told students at Georgetown University that President George Bush’s administration was committed to “transformational diplomacy”.

The philosophy was an attempt “to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world,” she said.

“Transformational diplomacy is rooted in partnership, not in paternalism,” she said, adding that it was based on “doing things with people, not for them.”

Although the state department has 7,440 diplomats in foreign countries, there are nearly 200 world cities of more than a million people in which the United States has no formal diplomatic presence, she said.

“This is where the action is today, and this is where we must be.”

Original Source:BBC
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Well, THIS outta peeve off a TON of career “diplomats” from Foggy Bottom!

Picture this: these guys were all comfortable in their Parisian bodegas and cafes, drinking their espressos and nodding knowingly as their french buddies discuss how eeevil the USA is. All the while they are pretending THEY are trying to hold off the worst of America for the benefit of their foreign pals because, after all, THEY aren’t an “ugly American”! THEY are the smart, diplomatic, caring, lefty “citizens of the wrold”. They jsut happen to get a paycheck from the American tax payers, is all. Nothing to hang THEM over, eh?

Now, all of a sudden, Condi Rice is going to rip them out of the comfort of Germany or france and send them to Jakarta or Bali!

These sponges of the US government’s largesse will be grumbling ALL the way to those “God forsaken” lands that they only saw on the BBC in the past.

Welcome to Africa, Mr. Diplomat. And, don’t mind the genocide. It happens all the time!
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