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Top U.S. Job in Iraq

Mar-31-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

For those of you following developments in the upcoming transfer of power in June, this NYT article provides interesting information about a possible replacement for Paul Bremer.

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By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, March 30 — It is described as the most challenging diplomatic assignment in the world, and the toughest to fill. Three months before sovereignty is restored in Iraq, the Bush administration is still looking for an ambassador to replace L. Paul Bremer III as the chief American political presence in Baghdad.

With at least 3,000 employees, the new ambassador will run the United States' largest and most complex embassy. President Bush is said not to have settled on a choice, but diplomats agree that whoever it is will need excellent rapport with Mr. Bush, American military commanders and top State and Defense Department officials who have feuded over Iraq for a year.

Not least, the new ambassador will have to keep uppermost Mr. Bush's political needs in an election year in which anything that goes wrong in Iraq could ignite a political furor.

"The first thing you'd have to ask about this job is, who would want it?" said an administration official. "I can't imagine a more impossible job, in a more nasty place. But you could make an awfully big difference."


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