christopher hill

Tom Ricks reported earlier this week that Gen. Odierno’s relationship with the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill, is “deteriorating rapidly.” Hill denied it to Ricks’ Foreign Policy colleague Josh Rogin. Ricks sticks to his story. So now Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) asked Odierno how it’s all going.
“Thank you so much for the question,” [...]

Alissa J. Rubin has a great story in The New York Times today about a crucial issue in Iraq (which some wags are starting to call the “Forgotten War”): an upcoming referendum that, if passed, would compel the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq within a year, well ahead of the end-of-2011 timetable [...]

DS at Diplopundit — who I gather is a Foreign Service Officer…? – points out that there’s a cloture vote for Chris Hill’s nomination to be ambassador to Iraq on the Senate calendar for April 20 at 5:30 p.m., the first day back from the Congressional recess. I left a message with a spokeswoman for [...]

Hill takes on his North Korea experience. All of the north’s neighbors “come with a long history, so you’ve got to work these issues through.” With Iraq, “it’s obviously a different mission, a different goal we’re trying to… accomplish,” but included is the role of ensuring “these countries respect Iraqi sovereignty.” Operating “multilaterally, making other [...]

The veteran diplomat’s tenure as North Korea troubleshooter in the Bush administration is key to understanding the current pushback.