A Snapshot of Life as a U.S. Embassy Staffer in Baghdad

The Washington Post has posted a .pdf of a cable, “obtained” by the paper and “marked ‘sensitive.'” The name at the bottom is simply “Khalilzad,” from which one could deduce that the letter at the very least passed by the eyes of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the man charged with implementing the administration’s “policy” in Iraq.

This account of the atmosphere inside and around the Embassy workplace cuts through all of the other noise being debated and pumped out in the media and blogosphere, it is matter-of-fact. Read it.

Below is a snippet describing the difficulty one employee is having in keeping her cover in front of her family:

At the very least, the Pentagon will now allow them to “use deadly force.” And if it’s any consolation, the Chicago Tribune reported a few weeks ago of a new “giant U.S. Embassy” being constructed to the dismay of Iraqis, on the perimeter of the Green Zone.

Although the president has been known to openly brag about not reading newspapers, if the Post is bold enough to print this in black & white, I applaud them.