“You all deserved better,” writes William Burns, a former career diplomat who served as CIA director and deputy secretary of state, to his former colleagues, in The Atlantic.
His long letter focuses on the intelligence officers, State Department officials and senior military officers with whom he worked day-to-day.
But the end of his letter certainly applies to all federal employees:
“Your expertise and your often quietly heroic public service have made an immeasurable contribution to the best interests of our country. You swore an oath — not to a party or a president, but to the Constitution. To the people of the United States.
“To protect us. To defend us. To keep us safe. You’ve fulfilled your oath, just as those still serving in government are trying their best to fulfill theirs. So will the next generation of public servants.
“All of us have a profound stake in shaping their inheritance. I worry about how much damage we will do in the meantime. There is still a chance that the next generation will serve in a world where we curb the worst of our current excesses — stop betraying the ideals of public service, stop firing experts just because their statistics are unwelcome, and stop blowing up institutions that matter to our future. There is still a chance that the next generation could be present at the creation of a new era for America in the world, in which we’re mindful of our many strengths but more careful about overreach.
“There is, sadly, room for doubt about those chances. At this pivotal moment, there’s a growing possibility that we will inflict so much damage on ourselves and our place in the world that those future public servants will instead find themselves present at the destruction — a self-inflicted, generational setback to American leadership and national security.
“But what I do not doubt is the abiding importance of public service, and the value of what you have done with yours. And I know that you will continue to serve in different ways, helping to stand watch over our great experiment, even as too many of our elected leaders seem to be turning their backs on it.”
With appreciation to you and your families,
Bill Burns
