Memo: State Department offering preferred post-Iraq assignments to diplomats who voluntarily serve 1 year in Baghdad

Above: The current U.S. embassy in Baghdad is scheduled to be replaced by a newly-built half-billion dollar complex in September.

Facing the challenge of finding diplomats to serve amid the violence and chaos in Baghdad, the U.S. State Department offers new incentives to its diplomats to work in the embassy.

According to a memo sent to employees last Friday and obtained by ABC News, the State Department is allowing diplomats who volunteer to serve the next year in Iraq to choose their following assignment now, including coveted and more comfortable posts in Western Europe...

In June, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced to employees that all positions in the Baghdad Embassy must be filled before other jobs are opened, and that the Department would begin taking early volunteers for Iraq immediately, well ahead of the usual application cycle for 2008 assignments, which begins in September.

Read the rest at ABC News

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