Exit Envoys

Quiz Time!

What is way more better than an envoy?

Easy! Special Envoys!

As best understood - an especial Envoy is one of 44's magical Czar cats - able to tack tack tackle any prob in (and out) of the realm of the Diplopolititary realm  - a kinda Robin type avatar to Madame Sec HRC's Batman.

44's FoPo Czars - the Special Envoys - have been all attrited at an alarming rate - not unlike the shocking losses suffered by Luftflotte 3's  something something Stukageschwader in the pre Beatle Battle of Britain bit of the last millennium.

Envoy Holbrooke's untimely passing on AFPAK, Senator Mitchell's bailing on the Little Satan/ Palestine thingy, Gov Richardson getting the Talk to the Hand biz in collectivist Cuba and now news that the avuncular Dennis Ross (oh - he got game baybee!) is opening the escape hatch and 'chuting out of the Persia Portfolio.

 Dr Ross typed up that massive thick thing filled up with paper - the essential non profit Jaw Flapping tome n how to history guide for Peace Mongers to hook up with hot n High levels of Little Satan and Palestine. There was always something anti tingly about the ending - 700 pages only to find out that Comrade Papa Arafat just couldn't commit to Palestine being a client state of and sharing borderlicious borders with Little Satan and BiBi always freaking about inadvertently creating innocent civilian rich enemy rocket bases on Little Satan's Near Abroad

"Missing Peace" got followed up with  "Myths, Illusions and Peace" the promise of finding a new direction in the ME - especially with Iran - was totally jank - more like the old direction and all that Grand Bargain chiz...

Anywrought - Dr R was like "an invisible man running what was virtually an invisible policy, Courtney. And now, he's leaving an empty stage virtually without footprints."

Check it

  The quiet departure of the 62-year-old career diplomat, who is returning to his old think-tank perch at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, follows only five months after the resignation of George Mitchell, 44’s official Mideast envoy. In the interim, Ross had taken over what was left of Mitchell’s portfolio. It wasn’t much, given the nonexistent peace process betwixt Little Satan and Palestinians. He also led a final, mostly failed effort to prevent a unilateral bid for Palestinian statehood at the U.N.

 For much of the rest of his tenure, Ross had attempted to develop a policy to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon, a plan that never quite jelled. Indeed, the last time I can recall Ross being trotted out to talk to a large group of reporters was in late 2009, when the administration voiced hopes that its “outstretched hand” to Tehran would bring Iran back to negotiations. That never happened, and today, after spending the last two years dribbling out a series of new sanctions against Iran, the administration has failed to lead any known coordinated effort to halt Tehran’s nuclear program. 

The technical difficulties experienced by the Iranians in the last couple of years, said to be related to the mysterious Stuxnet computer virus -- and attributed by some experts to the Americans -- may have bought 44 some time. But a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency indicates that Iran’s secret nuclear development program is likely still under way.

Ross’s tenure with 44's administration began in confusion and ended in virtual silence. In an embarrassing moment in January 2009, the Washington Institute issued an announcement describing him as the new Obama administration's "ambassador at large" and Secretary of State-designate Clinton's top adviser “on a wide range of Middle East issues, from the Arab-Little Satan peace process to Iran." 

Dang o infighting done got Ross’s portfolio narrowed down to Iran in the latter days. 

According to a former 42nd administration official who served with Ross, his precise role was never clear. “It was very different from the 42nd administration, where you had free rein over one portfolio. He had more than one portfolio this time but without any of the control,” said the former official, who would speak about Ross only on condition of anonymity. “And there were personality tensions between him and Mitchell.”

 The happy fact that the malign Leverette's both hated Ross' guts earned him some love with cool kids everywhere tho - and he could cert put steel on target in annihilating Waltsheimers Disease 

It’s something of a sad denouement for Ross, who is widely considered one of the most knowledgeable and able Mideast diplomats in recent history. The 44th admin began with high hopes of reviving a moribund peace process, putting intense pressure on Little Satan's Prime Minister BiBi halt settlement-building on the West Bank as an enticement to the Palestinians. But the intractable problem of the split between Hamas, the terrorist organization in control of the West Bank, with which Little Satan refuse to negotiate, and the Palestinian Authority killed any prospect of talks. There was, in the end, little that either Mitchell or Ross could do.

In his writings, Ross offered up some clues as to his frustrations over nearly two decades of trying to foster peace in the Mideast and failing. In his 840-page 2004 memoir, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace, Ross harshly criticized both Netanyahu (whom Ross said was "insufferable" during his first tenure as prime minister, in the 1990s, because of his uncompromising views) and then-Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat for failing to relinquish their mutual "myths." Both hoped unrealistically to hold onto lands and rights that neither could retain if there was to be a deal, Ross wrote. In his most recent book, from 2007, Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World, Ross rebuked 43 for turning traditional diplomacy into a "lost art."

Sadly, it seems to have remained a lost art over the last few years, at least in the Mideast and Iran.

 Pic - "I have been privileged to contribute to our nation's efforts to promote security, peace, and democracy in the Middle East"