Kerry sends letter to Sec. Clinton re: staff in Iraq. He is pretty critical here:

[beachmom]

Good that Kerry is sounding the alarm:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/18/kerry-short-staffing-in-i_n_216992.html

Kerry: Short-Staffing in Iraq Could Imperil Transition

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has raised concern that hard-won security gains in Iraq are vulnerable because of cutbacks in key personnel.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), said the office in charge of helping with Iraq's transition to self-sufficiency is operating with half its staff positions vacant.

Kerry wrote in a June 12 letter that the Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO) has "about two dozen" vacancies out of 46 positions, because of a "hiring freeze" imposed in anticipation of handing over operations to the Iraqis next April. The Obama administration plans to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by August 31, 2010.

The State Department has not yet responded to requests for comment from the Huffington Post.

...

Kerry wrote that a "failure to provide the best possible services in areas like water, electricity and health care risks detracting from the enormous progress we have made on so many fronts in Iraq and damaging the credibility of the democratically elected government of Iraq."

Read the entire letter at the link. This is potentially troubling. The last thing we need is for Iraq to totally blow up just at the moment that things escalate in Afghanistan. Sigh, two front wars are never good.

[karynnj]

1. This is very troubling as it is those non-military/diplomatic people

who are needed. Both Obama and Clinton repeated Kerry's words that there is no military solution - that a political solution is needed. These government services are key to any government having a chance.

The most troubling thing is knowing that Kerry likely brought this up with Clinton and likely Obama before going public. This with the fact that he has concerns on Afghanistan, where per some accounts HRC and Biden disagreed - with Obama going with HRC's more hawkish choice, is troubling.

[wisteria]

2. Why the lack of staffing? This makes no sense. n/t