The Washington Post is reporting the State Department is facing an internal uproar over new rules that would force U.S. officials to serve in Iraq. The dissent was heard Thursday at a town-hall meeting of hundreds of U.S. diplomats in Washington. One Foreign Service officer received “sustained applause” after calling service in Iraq “a political death sentence” that otherwise would have been closed were it anywhere else in the world. Another officer complained the State Department refused to pay for her medical treatment after she returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder. Diplomats were informed last week that nearly 50 vacant positions would be filled in Iraq through mandatory assignments. It’s believed to be the first time officials have been ordered into foreign posts since the 1960s.