Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus to leave Iraq before a new administration comes in

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/06/AR2008030603610.html

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker plans to leave Baghdad as early as January, leaving the most critical U.S. diplomatic post not long after the top military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, is expected to rotate out of Iraq.

Crocker, 58, plans to retire from the foreign service. He has been telling colleagues that he wants to leave by mid-January, before a new administration comes in, after almost 22 months in Iraq.

"I am prepared to remain in Baghdad until early 2009, when I intend to retire," Crocker said in an e-mail to The Post. "That will make two years in Iraq and 37 years in the Foreign Service -- it's enough!"