Spin Cycle

(Fox News) - The association that represents state department Foreign Service officers is urging its members to try to get a positive message out to the public — after press reports of its members' negative reactions to the possibility of forced assignments in Iraq.

The American Foreign Service Association says it has taken "a severe beating in the media." It has e-mailed members asking them to write letters to local newspaper editors — in the hopes of getting them published.

It has provided a list of talking points — including — Most people in the Foreign Service spend the majority of their careers in increasingly difficult and dangerous hardship posts and, "unlike the military, our members are courageously volunteering to serve as unarmed civilians in a combat zone."