When Is Enough Enough?

In a story on ABCNews.com today (Tenet Lessons, Less Pay, More Frustration: Why It's the Choice for Some), Laura Marquez writes about for CIA Director George Tenet's decision to leave his post and asks the question:

"So what causes someone who dedicates his life to public service to sever those ties, and as in Tenet's case, become an outspoken critic of the government he once served? Tenet is certainly not the first public servant to become disillusioned with his job."

Marquez cites me in the article and happened to call a few days after I'd returned from a seminar at The Arden Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts (http://www.shakespeare.org/arden/participating.php). As part of a seminar called "Leadership in a Time of Crisis" (http://www.shakespeare.org/arden/crisis.php), we read the resignation of former diplomat John Brady Kiesling (John Brady Kiesling Home) who, after serving 20 years with the State Department, resigned in a letter that was widely circulated on the Internet after he wrote it to Colin Powell in 2003, which was the first time I had seen the letter.

In part Kiesling writes: "Until this Administration, it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my President I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer."

You can find Kiesling's resignation letter at John Brady Kiesling Home.

Information on the Arden Seminars is at http://www.shakespeare.org/arden/crisis.php.

And Marquez's article on ABCNews.com is at Tenet Lessons, Less Pay, More Frustration: Why It's the Choice for Some.