| Ryan C. Crocker |
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Ryan Clark Crocker (born on June 19 , 1949 in Spokane, Washington ) is the current United States Ambassador To Iraq . Previously, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan in 2006 and Lebanon in 1990. EDUCATION AND CAREER Crocker attended University College Dublin and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington , where he received a B.A. in English Literature in 1971. After Persian language training, he was assigned to the American Consulate in Khorramshahr , Iran in 1972. His subsequent assignment was to the newly-established embassy in Doha , Qatar in 1974 as an economic-commercial officer, and in 1976 Crocker returned to Washington, DC for long-term Arabic training. He completed the 20-month program at the Foreign Service Institutes Arabic School in Tunis in June 1978. Crocker was then assigned as chief of the economic-commercial section at the U.S. Interests Section in Baghdad , Iraq. Crocker served in Beirut , Lebanon as chief of the political section from 1981 to 1984. He spent the academic year from 1984 to 1985 at Princeton University under State Department auspices pursuing course work in Near Eastern studies. He served as deputy director of the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli affairs from 1985 to 1987 and was political counselor at the American Embassy in Cairo from 1987 to 1990. Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Crocker became the Director of the Iraq-Kuwait Task Force . Crocker's experience and his vast knowledge of Middle Eastern cultures, history, and languages make him one of the State Department's leading experts on Middle Eastern affairs. He has received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. In January 2002, he was appointed interim envoy to the new government of Afghanistan , and was confirmed as Ambassador to Pakistan in October 2004. In September 2004, President Bush conferred on him the rank of Career Ambassador , the highest rank in the Foreign Service . About Ambassador Crocker, U.S. Department of State website On January 8 , 2007 , Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the Bush administration would nominate Crocker as the new American Ambassador to Iraq, replacing Zalmay Khalilzad , once the latter's confirmation to the post of Ambassador To The UN was complete. QUOTE ON THE DUTIES OF A DIPLOMAT Upon being asked about how changing administrations and changes within administrations impact the job of a diplomat by Whitman College magazine, Crocker gave the following reply ''Whitman College Magazine'' interview with Ryan Crocker (pdf) : 2002 MEMO CONCERNING IRAQ According to the book, ''Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell'' by Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung, as the Bush administration was preparing for war with Iraq in late 2002, then Secretary of State, could unleash long-repressed sectarian and ethnic tensions, that the Sunni minority would not easily relinquish power, and that powerful neighbors such as Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia would try to move in to influence events. It also cautioned that the United States would have to start from scratch building a political and economic system because Iraq's infrastructure was in tatters. NOTES AND REFERENCES SOURCES
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