Iran-Contra Figure Becomes Ambassador to Iraq

The White House has announced that it will appoint Iran-Contra figure John Negroponte as the new ambassador to Iraq. The arrogance of this move is shocking, even by this White House's standards: Negroponte's claim to fame was his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, which helped provide weapons to the Iranians in their war with Iraq. Essentially, America's first envoy to the new Iraq was a figure who indirectly helped wage a war against Iraq - a fact that might not go over too well in an Iraqi society that still can remember the bitter Iran-Iraq war.

And, of course, this says nothing about Negroponte's dismal human rights record and lack of expertise in Mideast affairs. Somehow, the White House thinks it is more important to have a conservative ideologue whose specialty Latin American covert operations in Iraq, rather than a Mideast expert who speaks Arabic.