When Barack Obama named Christopher Hill to be his ambassador to Iraq, he praised the diplomat for having "the pragmatism and skill that we need right now." Republican Sen. Sam Brownback strongly disagreed.
In a March 2009 letter to the President, the Kansas Republican slammed Mr. Hill for engaging in "evasive and unprofessional activities" as the U.S. representative to the Six Party Talks over North Korea. Mr. Brownback also noted that Mr. Hill spoke no Arabic and had never served in a diplomatic post in the Middle East. This was not, he wrote, "the time to appoint an ambassador who may need the equivalent of a crash course in Iraqi affairs."
Now the administration seems to have come around to Sen. Brownback's view. Word is that Mr. Hill will be leaving Baghdad after barely a year to become dean of the University of Denver's foreign service school. Supposedly, Mr. Hill took the job intent on spending only a year in Baghdad, but several sources tell me he had a particularly strained relationship with U.S. military commanders, including Gen. Ray Odierno. His lack of Arabic would also have made him poorly suited to play the role his predecessor Ryan Crocker did in easing tensions between Iraq's dueling political factions.
The good news is that Mr. Hill is to be replaced with Jim Jeffrey, currently the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Mr. Jeffrey, a Vietnam vet, has already done one tour of duty in the Baghdad embassy as former ambassador John Negroponte's deputy. He was also George W. Bush's deputy national security adviser. The ambassador gets good reviews from his erstwhile White House colleagues, who think the New Englander's easy manner, Middle East expertise and military background will serve him well. His nomination is another reminder that, when it comes to Iraq policy, Barack Obama's presidency is little more than an extension of his predecessor's.
-- Bret Stephens
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