At a town hall meeting at the State Department attended by hundreds of Foreign Service officers alarmed that a senior official has told some of them that they risk losing their jobs if they don't go to Baghdad, they complained that:
* They are not receiving adequate training before being sent into the war zone.* The embassy (photo), the largest in U.S. history, is too damned big.
* The Green Zone, the supposed safe area where the embassy is located, is frequently under mortar and rocket fire from insurgents.
* Returning diplomats are finding that the department will not authorize medical treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Service in Iraq is "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now."
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