Is honor so exotic?

The State Department's cultural tone-deafness:

Mohammed Hafidh Abdul-Razzaq had been summoned by U.S. Embassy officials who wanted to make amends for the killing of his 10-year-old son. The boy died during a shooting involving employees of Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. security firm.
Deputy Chief of Mission Patricia A. Butenis told him that she was sorry for what had happened, Abdul-Razzaq recalled. She gave him a sealed envelope. It had his name written on it. Abdul-Razzaq pushed it away."I told her I refuse to receive any amount," the auto parts dealer said. "My father is a tribal sheik, and we're not used to taking any amount unless the concerned will come and confess and apologize. Then we will talk about compensation."

I'm pro-American and pro-Blackwater, but I can definitely respect this Abdul-Razzaq guy. The State Department is responsible for its own blunders, and dissing Abdul-Razzaq this way -- calling him into your office and shoving a check at him -- was a blunder.

The State Department (not just the current political leadership, but the entire department, including its bureaucracy) is contemptible. This whole Blackwater situation is caused by the fact that State Department personnel are so cowardly they're afraid to go to the toilet without a convoy of armed guards, and such wimps they refuse to carry sidearms to cope with emergencies.

Anybody who's ever had any dealing with those Foggy Bottom pansies would know better than to deploy them to a place like Iraq. Hell's bells, drive down Constitution Avenue to 22nd Street and look at the security arrangements around the State Department office -- Fort Foggy Bottom! If those pansy diplomats cower in such abject fear in Washington, imagine how they must wet their pants in Baghdad.

The Arabs don't respect weaklings and cowards, and weakness and cowardice are prerequisites for employment at State.