8 Former Secretaries of State Urge More Diplomats

Today, eight former Secretaries of State from both parties urged Congress to fully fund President Obama's request for increased U.S. diplomatic and development personnel in his fiscal year 2010 budget.

The coalition of former chief diplomats connected the dots between increased funding for diplomacy and development to improved efforts to prevent deadly conflicts:

"Some will say that we cannot afford to support the [funding] increase, and we recognize the economic crisis facing our country. But the reality is that we cannot afford to fail at this challenge... Avoiding one war or defusing one major crisis would save many times the increase. And providing resources for civilians to carry their share of the load will decrease the strains on our already badly overstretched military, which has been asked repeatedly to divert personnel to deal with issues from nation building to agricultural development."

Appropriations staffers, please take note.

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