Peace Corps alum: 'Fix the failings'

Here's a reaction from Blair Reeves, a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon from 2005 to 2007:

Robert is right about some things - the Peace Corps, like any other government agency, is overly politicized, obtusely bureaucratic and suffers from some occasionally awful administration. As an employee for a USAID contractor now, however, I brush off these criticisms as being somehow specific to Peace Corps. As many others have pointed out, the PC can be a potent diplomatic tool - the very example of the "public diplomacy" our country so badly needs today. And no matter what Robert thinks, genuine, sustainable, long-term development is accomplished by individual volunteers on a local basis - just ask the village of Okong, where I helped arrange to fund and build two sources of potable water where there were none before. So fix the failings and let Peace Corps evolve - but see the PC's flaws in perspective with its successes.