From left, The Honorable John D. Negroponte, former ambassador to Iraq; The Honorable Edward P. Djerejian, former ambassador to Israel and to Syria; The Honorable Ronald E. Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and former ambassador to Afghanistan; and The Honorable Ryan C. Crocker, former ambassador to Iraq.
More than five years after the start of the Iraq war, U.S. involvement in Iraq is far from over, according to two veteran diplomats who participated in “Diplomacy in Iraq,” a recent Baker Institute panel discussion co-sponsored by the American Academy of Diplomacy.
“The Iraq story post-2003, this is still chapter one,” contended former Ambassador Ryan Crocker, referring to the year that U.S.-led multinational forces overthrew Saddam Hussein. “And we probably have 37 chapters ahead of us. This is a very long book.”
Crocker, who headed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Baghdad from 2007 to 2009, told the audience, “I’m a little bit concerned by a certain train of thought that says, ‘OK, forces are drawing down, we should go back to a normal civilian response, to conducting a normal bilateral relationship.'”
“We may get there someday,” he said. “But that’s not where we are now.”
John Negroponte, who served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, recalled how he submitted an assessment at the end of his tenure suggesting that stabilization in Iraq could take another five years–only to find that view not readily received in Washington. He added that “if we as a nation decide to get involved in these types of conflicts, we’ve got to understand that they take more time and involve more resources than we ever anticipate to begin with.” Negroponte later served as the first director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush.
The two diplomats stressed the many ongoing challenges facing the U.S. in Iraq, including stabilizing Iraq as a unified state at peace with itself and its neighbors and addressing Iraq’s political, sectarian and tribal differences through democratic means.
The Baker Institute and Council on Foreign Relations published a 2003 report, “Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq,” and the institute was a co-sponsor of the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State and Baker Institute honorary chair James A. Baker, III.
View a webcast of the Nov. 4, 2009, panel discussion, “Diplomacy in Iraq.”