Taking Care of the Troops The State Department Way Back in March, I posted a first person account of an FSO in Mexico amidst that countrys shooting war. (see US Mission Mexico: First Person from a Border Post ). I also did a follow-up post, In a War That Must Not Be Named, Leadership and Security On the Line. This is what I wrote then: I supposed we may think of life in the Service as if it were a scale -- the national strategic and security priorities on one side and on the other side, the acceptable personal risk of the employees. But not everyone will get to look at that scale. And not everyone will get to make the judgment call. Employees do not get to vote, diplomatic missions are not democracies. That might as well apply to the mothership of diplomatic missions. Thirty-two years ago, our diplomats were taken hostage in Iran. Moorhead C. Kennedy Jr. who served as an economic and commercial officer in the U.S. embassy in Iran during the hostage cri...