A Cultural Revolution for the State Department (XIV)

Excerpted from Amb. Bolton's "Surrender Is Not An Option," p. 454.

Very few at State, of course, would admit to any of this. Almost all would emphatically deny it. But it is the actions of the permanent bureaucrats that matter, not their rhetoric. Moreover, these cultural defects do not mean that there exists at State an incurable weakness of character or capabilities that prevents a cure. Many careerists are as tough as they come, and anyone who has ever engaged in an internal turf struggle with State bureaucrats knows the true meaning of street fighting. Instead of fighting with ourselves, however, in a circular firing squad, we should be directing our energies against our foreign adversaries, which we are certainly not now doing adequately. This cultural problem is solvable, although we need to understand that, because it developed over decades, it will take decades to cure. Criticism from the outside alone will not remedy the problem.