Why We Said No: Three Diplomats' Duty

by Ann Wright, John Brown, and Brady Kiesling

Five years ago this month, the three of us left the US Foreign Service in opposition to the war on Iraq. We were not pacifists. We were professional, non-partisan diplomats bound by our oath of loyalty to the US Constitution. Our job was to build effective relationships with key figures outside the United States. We used our language skills, respectful curiosity, and understanding of local politics to promote US national interests as our president and secretary of state directed.

We did not know each other. Ann, who was also a reserve colonel in the US Army, had helped reopen US Embassy Kabul after the fall of the Taliban. Brady was a 20-year political officer who had learned something about tribal politics and the limits of US power. John was a practitioner of public diplomacy with over twenty years' experience, mostly in Eastern Europe. We shared one key professional judgment, that this war we were ordered to promote would be a disastrous mistake.

Love of country and professional self-respect compelled each of us to speak out, in the only honorable way open to us, by resigning. In our letters to Secretary of State Colin Powell, we opposed invading a country that posed no genuine threat to the United States. We underscored that our invasion would not be understood by our allies, that our occupation would be resisted, and that the consequences of the war would be dire for both Americans and Iraqis.

The war happened, with tragic but predictable consequences. Mistakes by ambitious, ignorant political appointees worsened the fiasco. For domestic political reasons, the Bush Administration could not adapt its policies to the reality that its "war on terrorism" was actually an intricate maze of local conflicts into which it had blundered without a guide.

The invasion of Iraq had a terrible impact on America's relationship with the world. The tricks of totalitarian manipulation of public opinion the White House used to "sell" the war at home -- simplification of the issues, repetition of empty phrases, demonization of foreigners, and falsification of history -- simply did not work abroad.

By counting on such methods, Bush appointees tainted the US informational, educational, and cultural programs that once were the beating heart of America's public diplomacy efforts. The desperate PR campaign by Mr. Bush's Texas confidante, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, failed utterly to repair the damage.

Five years later, we are convinced that the Bush administration is still on the wrong path for regional stability. Key officials lack the empathy and local knowledge needed to wield the tools of US diplomacy effectively in the Middle East. America's outsized military presence is the principle around which local fanaticism organizes itself, to the detriment of the ordinary Arabs and Kurds America aspired to help. A rapid withdrawal from Iraq, coordinated with Iraqi factions and neighboring states, is the least destructive option remaining.

Our gesture earned us a brief moment in the media and the cautious respect of our colleagues. Five years later, we do not regret our decision to leave the profession we loved. Faced with a flawed policy we had no power to change, the three of us embraced the hope Brady expressed in his resignation letter, that "our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting; [we] hope in a small way to contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share."

Between now and next January 20 the stakes for our former profession are high. The stakes for the American people and the planet are even higher.

Ann Wright, an anti-war activist based in Hawaii, is touring with her new book Dissent: Voices of Conscience (Koa Books 2008)
John Brady Kiesling is a writer in Greece, the author of Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower (Potomac Books 2006).
John Brown until recently compiled The Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review. He teaches on public diplomacy at Georgetown University.

Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq

Comments

[TrustMeImASalesman]

Dear Diplomats John, Anne, and Brady: A forgotten Universal Law was intentionally not mentioned here! All we read is your" Noble Position, Great Courage, and Resignation" is this great fact; and that is War is the direct result of your Failure of Diplomacy!

In other words, put simply, you guys didn't do your jobs very well did you! You just couldn't convince Saddam, and Israel, and or any other diplomat that War was coming to them if they continued to screw it's citizens out of oil for food revenues. You failed to convince! You failed to sell the problem and it's solution! In other words, YOU FAILED! And diplomacy is the only lubrication between great friction!

Thanks for doing such a lousy job! You were about to be fired because you couldn't convince the Iraqi's that Saddam was a mad man! You couldn't enlist one other Arab country to speak with Saddam about the hate that surrounded him could you? YOU FAILED! Resignation was your only option! You blew it! Thanks for failing; now we have a 5 year war, going on for at leat 18 more months!

Please do not dis-respect us any further by speaking to us in terms of noble jestures. You didn't do your job! Now, go sell realestate for a living! Or, maybe work for a mortage broker! Do something constructive!!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Huzzah, huzzah, and huzzah.

[Skepticat]

The strength of a country is not in it's military alone and certainly not in the often venal rogues and churls that temporarily gain office but in the dedication of the non political people that serve their country first not the ego driven politician of the day.
As long as there are people like Anne Wright, John Brown, and John Brady Kriesling around there is still some hope.

[mbaty]

Wasn't it just so obvious then that it was not only a bad idea but that the evidence for justifying it wasn't there? Some of us remember the run up to the invasion, thinking, "what?" But the train had left the tracks, and those who would benefit from a military interaction had no need to stop and consider making a plan, let alone using diplomacy until it was exhuasted. Iraq, Iran, Afganistan...these are just labels on people who share a different landscape, if you will, literally and figuratively, but at the core we are all one. I'm not surprised that I didn't hear more about these three brave people who quit their jobs to make a statement, and some of us felt the same way. Osama may very well be dead, and "Al Queda" is just a slur, like "Commie," or the modern version, "Terrorist," --that vaguely defined label that reduces political violence to a desire to cause fear rather than a means to be heard, finally. It's convenient, isn't it, to reduce such complexities to a few banner words--convenient until, five years later, here we are, borrowing money for a failed invasion, still no definitive plan to get out.

[AnitaBee]

You have my gratitude for following your conscience. As I think back to all the politicians, public officials, journalists, and others who, out of fear and careerism, supported what they must have known was a morally reprehensible act of aggression, I realize how rare conscience is. If only it were otherwise.

[OldSarg]

You also have my gratitude for leaving the service of this nation. It is an inspiration to the rest of us that when our nation was faced with difficult times you chose to quit. Thank you for letting us open a position for someone who was willing to work to make a difference.

[DRHoen]

"The invasion of Iraq had a terrible impact on America's relationship with the world. The tricks of totalitarian manipulation of public opinion the White House used to "sell" the war at home -- simplification of the issues, repetition of empty phrases, demonization of foreigners, and falsification of history -- simply did not work abroad."

Very true. I live in Canada, which is about as close physically and culturally to the US as you can get, with most of our TV for example coming straight from America, only about 50 km from the border. Even here, it is impossible to understand the US policy on Iraq except in terms of a brainwashed US public.

[mouselion]

First of all, I would like to commend each three of you for your foresight and understanding to oppose this military/political blunder. You took a brave early stance on the Iraq preemptive war issue and acted your conscientious.

Now, I'd like to comment on the one phrase "We were not pacifists":

As an Army veteran who became a conscientious objector, after serving honorably in the 82d Airborne Division, and who advocates a weaning away from military solutions of world affairs (a position supported by some nations), I'd like to clarify a point about the label "pacifist". This is usually a term used derogatorily towards those in the Peace Movement community. I've read it used by responders on HuffPo who were anti-Iraq War, but not necessarily anti-war or anti-military (as most Americans seem to be at this point).

A pacifist has the connotation of being "passive", of accepting whatever comes their way. I take this to be what you mean. But, further clarification needs to made, as it is term that is sometimes bandied about with misunderstanding of the nuanced difference between "pacifist" and "peace activist."

For those who may be ready to use this term, please understand that those that are Peace activists are not pacifists. They are pro-active. They do not accept injustice or oppression, and they work for non-violent solutions, social and environmental justice. While many see Iraq (and Afghanistan, to a much lesser extent) as political/military blunders -- which they are -- peace activists see that it is a long line of historical events leading to these wars, and that beyond stopping them, pro-active international and domestic policies need to be implemented to promote goodwill among the peoples of different nations and to help curtail future terrorist and military threats to the U.S. and other nations.

[wotcanisay]

The war in Iraq was plain and simple:

One man's personal vendetta against another man's actions.

It was plain and simply revenge for "he tried to kill my daddy!" - a quote I have witnessed Bush saying on Television.

And that too was in another war - the 1991 war.

By the same token, would it be ok for Fidel Castro's son to kill an incumbent President - only because "they tried to kill my daddy!" sentiment on the son's part?

Americans should open their eyes once and for all and throw out all the Republicans once and for all into the trash heap of history for composting - the maggots in their brains will accelerate the putrefaction which has already started, inside outwards!

[grn1]

Really, all anyone has to do is read the "Project for New American Century". Next insert a president in office with said personal vendetta and substance abuse psychosis, and presto the formula for neocons proselytizing for middle-east transition with the element of oil acquisition. A supposed win-win, $UNFORTUNATELY$ a genocide has occurred and all tenancy will only lead to more death and destruction. Anyone who refused to partake in these crimes, will not be held responsible. So if posters pulling the patriot card really qualify through personal involvement or loss due to the catastrophe called Iraq by calling others cowards, please state your involvement and intentions of physically demonstrating goodwill through action.

[grn1]

Really, all anyone has to do is read the "Project for New American Century". Next insert a president in office with said personal vendetta and substance abuse psychosis, and presto the formula for neocons proselytizing for middle-east transition with the element of oil acquisition. A supposed win-win, $UNFORTUNATELY$ a genocide has occurred and all tenancy will only lead to more death and destruction. Anyone who refused to partake in these crimes, will not be held responsible. So if posters pulling the patriot card really qualify through personal involvement or loss due to the catastrophe called Iraq by calling others cowards, please state your involvement and intentions of physically demonstrating goodwill through action

[obamacomment]

Quote: Yet in a sense, all this is a distraction from the awful truth in Buchanan's warning. We have dispatched our armies into the land of Islam. We have done so with the sole encouragement of Israel, whose own false intelligence over Iraq has been discreetly forgotten by our masters, while weeping crocodile tears for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died.


The U.S. will never be more than a client of Israel (some people say it is the other way round) if it does not deal with it's dependence on Israel (both in terms of a fallacious "influence", as well as a source of ready funding from special interests).

The U.S. will suffer and as a consequence the American People will suffer - for their ignorance.

Foreign Affairs are no longer the domain of the Israeli Lobby - they are in the heartland of America.

Some of the wiser Jewish voices have been advocating this very same thing - because they see the long-term threat this will be for Jews in the United States. It will be a repeat of the Jews in Europe episode.

However Israel has now become so self-assured in it's reliance (some say control) of U.S. foreign policy that it presumes with great arrogance a support that may be about to evaporate in the heartland of America. Sure there will be pockets of support, but when the costs mount up you, when businesses see that it is difficult to be an "American" company in the world, the impact of that will be clear.

Unfortunately that will be 10 years too late - as the juggernaut of impact will have tilted SO heavily in one direction (before realization is made) that it will become next to impossible to reverse.

Add to that the "perfect storm" of imminent decline in U.S. supremacy (with new emerging world powers - China and the European Union) and you have a nonlinear situation where every loss now will be quickly taken up by those who have not harmed the world (in the last 8 years at least) and it will become next to impossible for the United States to experience a reversal in it's relations "because we are the only game in town".

The ascendancy of the competing powers could not have come at a worse time for the United States as that "unique moment in history" was presided over by a uniquely gifted shrub.

[obamacomment]

The problem with the diplomats objecting is that they do not object ENOUGH.

I know this is asking a lot of a career civil servant, but just tendering their resignation is too quiet a shaming of bad behavior.

If there was anyone who could have caused an embarassment it would not have been a member of the public, but a civil servant who leaks a thesis to the press (rather than just resigning) might have been much more effective. Of course it is another matter that the press would not have picked up on that story.

Being diplomats they would not have known how to deal with the rabble - the youth who inhabit the internet - they would not have been internet-savvy enough to know that despite a bought media they could have taken their story to something like slashdot where they would have been celebrated (for them it would have been real interesting company).

In any case, by now even civil servants are probably aware of the power of the media beyond just traditional media. But even that has it's limits - since traditional media is able to mobilize masses along a certain direction (because of it's broadcast/multicast nature).

[TellingTruth2Kooks]

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish!

Either we are a Country that Fights for the Rights of all people to Live Free from Tyranny, or we need to Shut Up! Which appears to be an abhorrent notion to those on the Left, who can talk the talk, but is unwilling to walk the walk. Since it seems that You don't believe in this one basic tenet of Human Rights, then you should have been fired. We don't need your kind of Pacificism, subjugating poor men, women and their children under the Iron Boot of Islamic Radicalism.

We Need Diplomatic Warriors to take the Message of Hope and Strength to these Poor Oppressed people that we are aware of their suffering and that we OPPOSE the Hanging of Homosexuals in the Public Square, and the Stoning of Women for being accuse of some "Vice", and the Torturing of Children to Mentally Break the Will of their Parents, who fail to Toe the Party Line.

So enjoy your little Pity Party here at the HuffPo and wallow in these Phony accolades from Phony Humanists, as the Rest of us Real Americans will see you for what you truly are...Cowards!

[DietrichMoody]

Bill O'Reilly is that you??

[zizyphus]

I don't know which scares me more, Republican Radicalism, or Iron Booted Islamofascism. Is there a difference?

[JBradyK]

Hmm. I agree that the U.S. has a moral duty to use its power, including military power when truly necessary, to make the world a safer and better place (see NYTimes of April 23, 1993 on the Bosnia 12). But your comment illustrates why American power doesn't always achieve that.

For a start, we should do some basic homework to know who we are saving from what. Saddam Hussein wasn't an Islamic radical. He was an Arab nationalist and selfish tribal chief who saw radical Islam as a threat to himself and his family. Some Iraqis still miss him, because even a greedy, vain, murderous tyrant seemed preferable to complete anarchy. Statistically, those Iraqis have some arguments we have failed to rebut.

Try talking to Muslims. They won't bite you. Some of them agree fervently with you that they are suffering and need to be rescued. Some don't. Count noses before you invade, because their opinions matter. And don't forget the numerous Americans back home who likewise believe homosexuals ought to be hanged in the public square.

As for cowardice, it's a ugly word. If you had read our piece, you would have noticed that Ann opened U.S. Embassy Kabul soon after it fell. We didn't mention her stint in Sierra Leone and other garden spots. I volunteered for Kabul and was due to serve there as Political Counselor in 2004 had your "warriors" in Washington not left America's image and a fair chunk of its military and economic power mired in the muck of Iraq.

Sudden death is a threat U.S. diplomats live with all over the world, even in garden spots like Athens, my last post. I'm happy to stroll through Beirut and the Bekaa (12/07), or take the public bus from East Jerusalem to Ramallah, or even ride an old Soviet helicopter to Nagorno Karabakh. Are you?

Are you brave enough to tell your president the sad truth that half the world thinks it wants to be saved from us rather than by us? Unless you and he first convince foreigners that you are enlightened folks with their best interests at heart, your moral crusade will end up as murder not salvation. Ultimately, however, this debate is about brains, not guts...
Brady Kiesling

[karela]

Good Job!!! When this country has a democratic president, there will be a great need for diplomats like the three of you. You will represent the fairness that has been so lacking and your credentials based on your stance on this war will be impeccable in the world scene. Thank you for preserving your integrity and ours.

[SuiginTou7]

Must be. Such BS, protecting human rights while we torture innocences in secret sites. What crap!
"Iron Boot of Islamic Radicalism" (shaking my head). These people showed true patroitism, risking their careers to try and stop an unjust war and you have this moron calling them 'phonies' and daring, DARING to lecture us about what real american are. What garbage, if you're so gun ho, enlist and let's see you display that courage you mouth off about. My money is, he's like all these neocons, talk tough but when it comes to going off to war himself, he'll wet his pants and that's a true neocon.

[narcolepticjenn]

"Either we are a Country that Fights for the Rights of all people to Live Free from Tyranny"... what? When have we been that country? We can't topple every regime we do not agree with. We don't have the right, or the resources. Besides, the Iraq war wasn't sold as a crusade for democracy or human rights for the oppressed Iraqis. If it had been, nobody would have supported it. It was sold by exploiting 9/11. Big Daddy Bush was going to take care of us, if only we let him bomb the bad guys. It's insulting to our collective intelligence, but then again, it worked. (You apparently bought that the Iraq war had something to do with Islamic radicalism...) Not enough people bothered to ask if we were going after the right bad guys. It's not cowardice to stop at the edge of the cliff and refuse to jump along with everyone else.

To the three who quit: Thank you for your service, and for your commitment to true American values when it mattered.

[VespaGirl]

Islamic Radicalism??? The people of Iraq never lived under the "Iron Boot of Islamic Radicalism". Saddam was a secular leader. A tyrant, to be sure, but secular.

If you really think we went over there to free those "poor people" then you are seriously deluded. What about the rest of the oppressed in the world? Why aren't we rushing out to help them?

Yeah, we liberated them all right. We liberated hundred of thousands (if not millions) of them right out of their lives.

If you're so concerned about the suffering you mention regarding gays, women, etc. perhaps you could start with your own country. Otherwise, go back to the Freeper world you normally inhabit because we prefer to deal with the enlightened over here!

[daddysboy]

It seems that you were precisely what our dysfunctional administration was fighting against and your function was exactly what Americans needed to have performed so you quit. I respect and applaud your courageousness , but I can't help feeling like every remaining shred of reasonable sense up and left the administration at some point throughout the last 7-8 years and left the American people and our government to suffer for it. We need all of you in Iraq; not here telling your story. Was it really impossible for trained, professional diplomats to talk out of both sides of your mouth and still get the job done?

[RoseMerry]

I for one salute these brave souls and honor their patriotism and service to our species!

Thank you for the light you bring. These are dark, dark times and all who rage against this darkness are a blessing.

[army193]

Thank you

[ResidentChimp]

I only wish more fellow travelers would have the honesty to leave the government rather than sabotague our war efforts. it is courageous to quit if you don't believe in the policy, it is cowardly to undercut the government while betraying your oath.

[daddysboy]

Supporting the direct needs and interests of the American people is NEVER cowardly. I want my government officials to know when to break the rules and yes, you have to break them sometimes.

[ResidentChimp]

That's the rationale all criminals use.

[diamondmask]

Does anyone know the story behind the picture used for this aritcle. Pretty powerful image.