The Atypical Ambassador

[uppityperson]

The Boston Globe, article on Joe Wilson when he was Ambassador to Iraq pre-GulfWar 1, 1981, commended by papabush, "I am back in this demeaned and bitter city witnessing the greatest foreign debacle of a lifetime."

By H.D.S. Greenway | November 8, 2005

BAGHDAD
I PASSED by the old American Embassy the other day, a modest, nondescript building of the kind you find all over town. It appeared to be deserted, and people say it is for rent. I would have liked to take a longer look, but in the Baghdad of today Westerners do not linger, or even get out of their cars, unless absolutely necessary.

The old embassy that I came to know in the runup to the Gulf War in 1991 is a far cry from the present embassy -- that great pile of neo-Babylonian splendor called the Republican Palace, from which Saddam once ruled. Its ceilings are high and festooned with chandeliers. Much of the furniture is of the type cheerfully described as Louis Farouk. American diplomats today live in isolation, along with Iraq's provisional government, inside the hyper-protected Green Zone away from the lawlessness, insurgency, and chaos that now dominate Iraq.

Back in January 1991 the acting ambassador was Joseph Wilson IV, and it didn't take long to find out that Wilson was an unconventional, even flamboyant diplomat. Those were trying days as America prepared for war. But Saddam wasn't about to give up Kuwait, and Wilson knew that the embassy would soon have to be evacuated.

From time to time Wilson would invite the press in for a briefing, and they were usually precise and informative, even though there was little to report. He used to come around from behind his desk and lean back against it to take questions. There was a little black box on his desk near his hand, and when the question was too aggressive or silly, he would press a button and the box would speak a four-letter expletive followed by ''you." Invariably it got a laugh, and, of course, no one could accuse him of saying anything rude. It was just the little black box talking. But whatever you thought of the gimmick, you knew that Joe Wilson was not cut out of the same cloth as most diplomats...
Much longer article at link