Envoys take issue with being forced to go to Iraq

As I read the article in the Washington Post, Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty, it's really hard to not agree with the diplomats especially after reading how some of them who have already been to Iraq before have been treated.

Some asked how diplomacy could be practiced when the embassy itself, inside the fortified Green Zone, is under frequent fire and officials can travel outside only under heavy guard. Service there was "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," he said to sustained applause.

It is true that they do have to agree to go anywhere they are sent, but as the article points out that has not been enforced since the 1960's.