Former ambassador to Iraq speaks to Rotary group

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Former ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has two lessons from what he calls a "long war," which for him started with the harrowing 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, where he was serving at the time.

The suicide bombing that killed more than 60 people is considered by some to be the start of extreme Islamist attacks on the United States.

"Be careful what you get into and be even more careful what you propose to get out of," Crocker said Thursday in a talk
to Downtown Yak-ima Rotary. "You've got to think what happens when we get off the stage."

A hasty exit from Afghanistan, for example, would be a death sentence for its women. "Afghani women are literally going to get it in the neck."

Crocker, a Spokane native, was invited to the Rotary by orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Adkison. The two were classmates at Whitman College in Walla Walla.

Raised in an Air Force family, Crocker's first Foreign Service assignment was in Iran in 1972. He worked in the embassies in Qatar, Iraq and Egypt and served as ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria and Pakistan before being tapped for Iraq in 2007 by former President George W. Bush.

In a New York Times profile just before he was nominated to the post, Crocker was described as "incredibly hard-working, very serious, a little introverted...He's done the dirtiest, hardest assignments you can imagine."

Crocker, 59, had planned to retire in Spokane, where he has maintained his voter registration, but he's taken another assignment as dean of The Bush School of Govern-ment at Texas A&M University.

In fact, former president George W. Bush called Crocker during the Rotary lunch, Adkison said, and Crocker had to tell him he'd call back.

Crocker, who is fluent in Arabic and lived with Bedouin shepherds, assailed so-called Middle East experts who don't speak any language from the region yet pontificate on various topics of the day, such as Iran as a nuclear threat.

And he said Americans in general lack an understanding of the history and culture of the region, which hurts the country strategically. For example, since Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, every country in the Middle East has been occupied by at least one Western country. Now the United States is just the latest presence.

"Most Americans have no idea Napoleon invaded Egypt, but the Egyptians know it. We are successors to all the armies of occupation that came before us," he said.

Americans are recognized abroad as impatient, Crocker said. While that trait served the nation well when it was young and on the move, it's not an asset in foreign affairs.

"Our allies fear it and our adversaries expect it," he said, explaining how U.S. enemies with seemingly inferior armies can engage the United States in prolonged, indecisive military conflicts.

That said, Crocker said there is a general tentative conclusion that the United States may be seeing "the beginning of the beginning" of success in Afghanistan.

Crocker returned recently from the Munich Conference on Security Policy, which he attended with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and observed that, "The Cold War is not over. Tension between NATO and Russia was very visible. There is deep Russian mistrust and suspicion of NATO over matters based on history."

The mistrust is mutual among NATO's newer members, former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, Crocker said.

Crocker urged Rotarians to read local and national newspapers not only to gain understanding into complex global affairs but to support them financially.

Citing news organizations' closure of foreign bureaus, he
called the decline of knowledge-able coverage of foreign affairs "alarming" and said readers and viewers are too often hearing from journalists who parachute into a country they know nothing about.

The lack of intelligent reporting at a time when information is so fast and furious poses its own kind of national security risk, he said. "It really does worry me."

Crocker -- who enjoys a stellar reputation on both sides of the political aisle -- praised the administration of Barack Obama for maintaining diplomatic consistency abroad in the transition from the previous administration.

He said Obama is right to pursue "engagement" with Iran. Attacking a country with even nascent nuclear capability would be foolish.

"The only bad option is to impede their ability to develop nuclear weapons if possible, make it a global issue, not an American or Israeli issue and buy time. It's going to be incremental, it's going to be hard."

* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 509-577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.