Barack Obama has nominated Christopher Hill to serve as the United States Ambassador to Iraq. The post had first been offered -- by Jones, Clinton, and Biden -- to General Anthony Zinni, but the offer was subsequently withdrawn in embarrassing fashion at what many assumed to be the insistence of Richard Holbrooke, Hill's mentor and ally inside the administration. Now Senators McCain and Graham have objected to Hill taking on this assignment in light of his lack of "experience in the Middle East and in working closely with the U.S. military in counterinsurgency or counterterrorism operations," as well as the "controversial legacy Mr. Hill left in his North Korea diplomacy."
To say that Hill's efforts in North Korea were controversial is something of an understatement. He managed to alienate America's key allies, Japan and South Korea, while simultaneously making no progress on North Korea's nuclear program despite four years of negotiations. And despite pressure from Secretary Rice, Hill was also unable to secure any kind of written commitment from the North Korean's for verifying the dismantling of its nuclear program. But don't blame Hill for any of this. According to David Sanger's new book The Inheritance, Hill points the finger at the Bush administration:
"‘These assholes don't know how to negotiate,' Hill told a small group of friends and colleagues in 2007. ‘Everything is Appomattox. It's just ‘Come out with your hands up.' It's not even really Appomattox, because at the end of Appomattox they let the Confederates keep their horses.'"
Hill had his own ideas about how to deal with North Korea, which Sanger says he often called "a diddly-shit little country." He complained to Sanger about those in the administration who weren't keen on direct talks with the assorted thugs and tyrants heading the regimes at odds with the United States. "This knee-jerk view that you can't negotiate with dictators is garbage,' Hill told me as we sipped coffee one warm spring day in Washington. ‘My view is that you can-especially if the dictator is surrounded by more powerful nations.'" Those were the lessons of Hill's experience with Milosevic, Sanger says, though Dayton hardly brought about a peaceful resolution to the problems in the Balkans, and even Bosnia is now on the edge of the abyss.
There could be real concern about this appointment in Congress given Hill's penchant for aggravating America's allies and appeasing its enemies (in addition to Hill's complete lack of familiarity with the particular challenges of Iraq). If the Obama administration is so eager to find him a job, perhaps he'd be better suited to Pakistan -- he may be the only American diplomat willing to work under Grand Poobah Richard Holbrooke.
