US short of diplomats for Iraq, Afghanistan reconstruction ("the appetite is unlimited")

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The State Department is short of staff to meet the Pentagon's need to reinforce the provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior US official said Monday.

To press his point, Eliot Cohen, counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, noted that the Defense Department employs more musicians than the State Department has diplomats.

According to government data, the State Department employs 12,000 people, 5,500 of whom are diplomats deployed in Washington and abroad.

"When I tell the 5,500 figure, the generals are usually shocked," Cohen told reporters after commenting that at the Defense Department "the appetite is unlimited" for diplomats to join the understaffed PRTs.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080428/pl_afp/usiraqafghanistanreconstructiondiplomacy