Thursday, April 10, 2008

My chat with Ambassador Crocker

Well, most of the regular DC crew is gone to New Orleans for V-Day. The CP house was more silent than I remember it being since I first moved in at the beginning of March 2007.

Still, I felt motivated to try to make a presence on capitol hill. I had discovered that Ambassador Crocker was going to appear before a House Appropriations sub-committee on Thursday morning, so I woke up early and made a banner that was a thought bubble which said, "Diplomatic Surge? Who do I think I am kidding?" Of course, I intended to hold it over his head in hope that there would be a good photo of it; however, when I got to the hearing room. there was not a single camera in sight.

It was funny... one day after he had been the center of attention sitting along General Petreaus, Ambassador Crocker was now in a room with less than a dozen people. Since, there was no press for me to play to, I decided to resort to plan B.

Medea and Ann Wright had suggested some questions to ask him if I could get the chance. So, as we were waiting for the hearing to begin, I chatted with him. He was very friendly toward me. I told him I had heard he had met with Iranian delegations recently, and that I wondered what his impression of those discussions was... and I also asked if those discussions had anything to do with the cease fire in Basra. He told me that I was mistaken, he had not met with any Iranians since August of last year. Then I asked if he had not met with any Iranians since last year, why was he repeatedly saying in previous testimony that there was a "diplomatic surge" that had been implemented along with the military surge? He looked at me and said, "Well, it's all very complex." I wanted to laugh! I simply responded by saying, "Yeah, I have heard you say that a lot lately." He didn't have anything further to say, so he turned around and sat back in his seat until the hearing began.

~ Midge

1 comment:

JimPreston said...

WOW!!! "It's all very complex"?!?!

This reminds me of the first set of Petraeus hearings when we were told, by Joe Lieberman and others, "There are no easy answers in Iraq." My response was, "True enough, but there are WRONG answers."

good work,
peace,
jim