Crocker, Petraeus receive Distinguished Service Award
Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus received the Distinguished Service Award from the State Department today for their work in Iraq on counterinsurgency/diplomacy/reconstruction/everything. The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor that State can give a person. The remarks speak to the partnership that Crocker and Petraeus managed to forge between State and Defense in the Green Zone and of course made much of the recent drop in violence.
The LA Times reminds us that the work ahead may in fact be even harder, as the backbone of Iraq’s society, the middle class, is almost gone and those still in the country are first in line to leave. Reconstruction will not be an easy task if the Iraqis skilled in utilities provision, urban planning, education and other crucial services are no longer living in Iraq.