Obama's First Ambassador to Iraq?

That is correct! Today will be the day when the Obama Administration is expected to announce the addition of Christopher Hill to serve as Iraq's U.S. Ambassador after getting clearance from the Senate on yesterday. Not without some controversy however.

Republicans led by Senators Sam Brownback of Kansas delayed a final vote on the nomination of Mr. Hill, a career diplomat with bipartisan support, after the Senate easily cleared an initial procedural hurdle on a 73 to 17 vote. Sixty votes were needed.

As you can see, the Embassy in Iraq under construction at the time this photo was taken is now opened and functional. As of December 31, 2008, the embassy officially moved out of the Republican Palace, the jewel of Baghdad’s government buildings and the headquarters of the American presence in Iraq since shortly after the invasion.

For months, officials and members of the support staff, adding up to 1,200 people in all, have been gradually moving into the new embassy, America’s largest in the world. The Congressional Research Service said the final cost was $736 million; the original estimate was $592 million.

As for those 1,200 embassy employees, the State Department initially was concerned that they woudn't have enough interest from volunteers to go and serve in the new embassy given the amount of violence in the region. Threats had been made to motivate many of the State employees to consider a stint under the new Ambassador. This we know for sure on the Prayer Team; we know that God is going to protect these employees and families as they depart on this diplomatic, yet dangerous assignment.

Mr. Brownback accused Mr. Hill of lying to him about earlier negotiations with North Korean over its nuclear program and of failing to move aggressively against North Korea on the question of human rights violations.

“This is a person that we now want to promote to the biggest diplomatic post we have in the world,” Mr. Brownback said. But other Republicans urged the Senate to move forward with Mr. Hill, saying his presence in Iraq was crucial.

“It is important to get our next ambassador in place as quickly as possible,’’ said Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, who praised Mr. Hill for agreeing to accept such a difficult assignment.

‘We need an ambassador in Iraq,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a conservative Georgia Republican who just returned from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. “We need it desperately.”
Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr. Hill, who has been an envoy in multiple hot spots, was following the instructions of the Bush administration when dealing with Korea.

We definitely need to make sure that we are in support of the Ambassador, Mr. Hill, as he too alike many of our military service men and women give of themselves. Keep Mr. Hill and his family lifted up before God so that even in this hostile territory, he may serve his nation with the wisdom of almighty God in a land that is yet to be deemed friendly through and through.

“This should not be a controversial nomination,” Mr. Kerry said. “There are very few American diplomats with more experience than Chris Hill where it matters most.”