Ah, we're joking. No, nearly four months after the elections, Iraq still can't settle on a prime minister. And one of the main reasons for the political stalemate is that an unqualified idiot was made US Ambassador to Iraq: Chris Hill.
(Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Pig-Pen Ambassador.")
Friday, good news did come out of the White House, the Pig Pen Ambassador was out and James Jeffrey was in.
Chris Hill refused to utilize diplomacy to urge the Parliament to pass the election law. That delayed the actual election by two months. Had the election taken place two months early, Iraq might have named a prime minister by now.
But he didn't see that as his job. He didn't see that as his role.
What was his role?
Apparently escorting Big Oil executives around Iraqi fields as they came into the country.
The laughable 'surge' accomplished nothing. It was never going to accomplish anything other than postpone additional criticism. (How so? "Well, okay, but now there's a surge. Let's see what's going to happen with that.') But the surge was supposed to be two-fold. There was the surge for the military and there was supposed to be a diplomatic surge.
Chris Hill ensured that never happened.
Some called them "cat naps," some called them "power naps" (Hill called them power naps), but a significant portion of Hill's worktime was devoted to those.
As is apparent to anyone following the news, little time was devoted to Iraq.
And this was all foreseeable. Hill's work habits -- such as they are -- were well known. Also well known was the fact that he was completely ignorant when it came to Iraq. But Barack Obama nominated him and the Senate confirmed him (April 2009) allowing him to do months and months of damage.
It's Hill's mistake but it goes higher.