All right, you’re a diplomat in the employment of the United States. Things, honestly, aren’t going well. Your job is to reduce tensions between Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish people in Iraq. You are an agent of change.

Is this something you’d say to help everyone get along with each other and the U.S.:

“We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq,” he said.

So says to Al-Jazeera one of our senior diplomats, AP reports.

I may not be completely skilled in the nuances of diplomacy. I’ve made jokes about corporate culture as an icebreaker perhaps, but never would I seriously convey to a customer or a competitor that my company was arrogant and stupid. It looks bad on both my employer and me. It certainly doesn’t conjure respect in anyone I talk to.