[SOC] another resignation

[Lloyd Lachow]

Published on Wednesday, March 12, 2003 by
CommonDreams.org

Letter of Resignation by John H. Brown, Foreign
Service Officer


 
To: Secretary of State Colin Powell

March 10, 2003 

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am joining my colleague John Brady Kiesling in
submitting my resignation
from the Foreign Service (effective immediately)
because I cannot in good
conscience support President Bush's war plans against
Iraq.

The president has failed:

--To explain clearly why our brave men and women in
uniform should be ready
to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this
time;

--To lay out the full ramifications of this war,
including the extent of
innocent civilian casualties;

--To specify the economic costs of the war for
ordinary Americans;

--To clarify how the war would help rid the world of
terror;

--To take international public opinion against the war
into serious
consideration. 

Throughout the globe the United States is becoming
associated with the
unjustified use of force. The president's disregard
for views in other
nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy,
is giving birth to an
anti-American century.

I joined the Foreign Service because I love our
country. Respectfully, Mr.
Secretary, I am now bringing this calling to a close,
with a heavy heart but
for the same reason that I embraced it.

Sincerely, 

John H. Brown
Foreign Service Officer

John H. Brown, a Princeton PhD, joined the Foreign
Service in 1981 and has
served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade and,
most recently, Moscow.

A senior member of the Foreign Service since 1997, he
has focused his
diplomatic work on press and cultural affairs. Under a
State Department
program, he has, up to now, been an Associate at the
Institute for the Study
of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, where he was
assigned in August 2001. 





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