not very good at PR

State Dept misfires in Iraq pitch to diplomats.

Patricia Butenis, deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Iraq, today tried to convince her diplomatic colleagues that working in Iraq isn’t so bad — despite all the attacks:

“There are all kinds of opportunities here,” said Patricia Butenis, the deputy chief of the US mission.

“There are people who think we live under a constant barrage of mortar attacks, but it isn’t that way all the time.” […]

“I think some of it is based on not knowing what it is to be here. It’s true, two days after I got here we had 36 EFP (explosively-formed penetrators) strikes,” she said.

“That was serious, it’s scary. But you adapt, you get used to it.”

Another senior official, Charles Reis, also insisted that “service here is not as rough as I thought it was. The AC is functioning!”

(Think Progress)