Ryan Crocker, US Ambassador To Afghanistan, To Leave Post This Summer

KABUL, Afghanistan — Veteran U.S. diplomat Ryan Crocker will be leaving his post as ambassador to Afghanistan this summer, an embassy spokesman said Tuesday.

Crocker, 62, came out of retirement last July to take over the post after a request from President Barack Obama. Crocker was widely known for his role as U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009.

It is unclear why he is leaving the post a year ahead of schedule or who will replace him. The most likely candidate would be James Cunningham, one of four other ambassadors serving under Crocker in Kabul.

There have been persistent rumors that Crocker wanted to leave for personal reasons. The U.S. Embassy last denied such a rumor two weeks ago.

"Ambassador Crocker has confirmed, with regret, that he will be leaving Kabul this summer," acting embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg said.

Crocker also served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait and Syria.

He arrived here at the same time as Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. and coalition commander in Afghanistan.

Crocker retired after his stint as ambassador to Iraq and became dean of Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service.

He is currently in the United States, where he attended a NATO summit in Chicago.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[EndTimesApostasy]

08:14 PM on 05/23/2012

4 billion a year every year.

[cadawa]

03:01 AM on 05/23/2012

A career diplomat...the yes man's yes man.
It is mind boggling the way the media blandly discusses the war crimes of our leaders....normalizing senseless slaughter and theft.

[whatsit2yadudes]

04:47 PM on 05/22/2012

Hey, Ryan...bring the U.S. troops with you when ya leave that place. Please!
The government there, is corrupt.

[cbrownhvac]

04:34 PM on 05/22/2012

Oboma-stop our money NOW !! I can't believe our Government is so STUPID to continue sending money (our tax dollars). To Afganastan and they won't allow our people back into their country, to conduct our business. Our mission was accomplished and! Send our Troops and our Money Home, Now!!

[vigoddess]

04:04 PM on 05/22/2012

We should all leave Afghanistan this summer!
That would not only insure the president's re election,
it would get these young people who can see a light
at the end of the tunnel, and move their arzzes to
help the president, rather than be known as the
Hitler Youth Group, ratting out their parents to the
politics.

[mdcpbd]

05:55 PM on 05/22/2012

Ha! So, mmm, you sink zee Amerikanks vont to go home, Herr Kommandant?

[Dwight Alexander]

03:55 PM on 05/22/2012

good time to get out of Dodge...the bad guys will be there soon

[Aeryn Reid]

04:28 PM on 05/22/2012

Its what the indigies want. You just cannot make a silk purse out of mule dung. Hopefully the peeps here in the West yearning for the chains of shariah will relocate to that society for destructive anachronism! ;)

[g2services]

03:45 PM on 05/22/2012

Maybe we can just close the embassy and give the Afghan President a skype account to call when he needs some gold, or guns, or a whipping boy.

[mcpackerfan]

03:40 PM on 05/22/2012

BO's New Deal........ Remnants get thrown under the bus..

[Unca Allen]

03:33 PM on 05/22/2012

Smart man. Why hang around and be slaughtered by a bunch of 8TH Century tribal maniacs?

[vigoddess]

04:05 PM on 05/22/2012

You forgot to mention the hemp sandals!.

[jimbo175]

03:04 PM on 05/22/2012

The rats are scurrying!

[renner1234]

02:06 PM on 05/22/2012

Boy he knows when the getting is good.

He read the writing on the wall.

[queen7ofatlantis]

01:48 PM on 05/22/2012

LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTE IF THEY WANT TO GIVE THEM BILLIONS IN AFGANSTAN, LET THEM VOTE TO END THE WAR, AND LET THEM VOTE FOR SANE MEN TO RULE THIS COUNTRY

[Unca Allen]

03:34 PM on 05/22/2012

Amen to all of that. Fanned

[GJR227]

01:44 PM on 05/22/2012

Replace our military in Afghan with the politicians.

[Unca Allen]

03:34 PM on 05/22/2012

Not gonna happen, but it's a good idea.

[Erica McClellan]

05:50 PM on 05/22/2012

Yeah. ALL the politicians in America.

[hbssl]

01:24 PM on 05/22/2012

You had better get out of there before the taliban catch up to you. Don't forget to bring everybody else with you when you come. People starving and sleeping in the streets right here in America and we are borrowing money from China to pay the Afgan army on time. Every dime we spend there 6 cents of it is stolen. Get out now! It is so out of control there is no getting it back. Don't be the last one to die.

[Unca Allen]

03:35 PM on 05/22/2012

Fanned. The voice of reason.

[EndTimesApostasy]

08:34 PM on 05/23/2012

Listen, I have an idea to end homelessness. Let's trump up a Middle Eastern war and send 'em all over to serve their country. We'll enrich the military/industrial complex and at the end we'll look for a 2 story building we can land a helicopter on and ferry a bunch of babies and kids that their mothers thrust into the GI's arms. Let's have boat people and invest in Baby Wipes and send some plate armor over to the kids by FedEx and Baskin Robbins and give out candy to people who really just want to learn to read.

[Shomali]

01:24 PM on 05/22/2012

He is leaving for a serious health reasons. That is the news after this report came out.

[Prnzez]

01:47 PM on 05/22/2012

He's leaving before someone pops him. He should take all of our troops with him.

[Unca Allen]

03:36 PM on 05/22/2012

Fanned. Absolutely.