Rumor: Chris Hill to Retire

Just a year after the Senate confirmed failed North Korea negotiator Chris Hill as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, NHK is reporting that Hill plans to retire this summer. There has been occasional grumbling about Hill’s performance in office in Baghdad, though nothing approaching the criticism of his performance as a negotiator with North Korea. One of those who apparently didn’t much care for Hill was Gen. Ray Odierno, one of the architects of the military strategy that stabilized Iraq in 2007-2008. I presume that Hill would not have left a position he’d occupied for such a short period of time, after such a difficult confirmation, if the Obama Administration had been completely pleased by his performance there.

Hill’s retirement is some consolation for the fact that Senator Sam Brownback, who held up Hill’s nomination for several weeks, will retire from the Senate this fall to run for governor of Kansas.