[Vision2020] Maybe this was one of the problems?

[Wayne Price]

It's often asked why we're doing so badly in the middle east (Iraq and  
Afghanistan).
Could it be because we had drunks in charge?

August 23, 2012 in City
Former Afghanistan ambassador charged with DUI
Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review
Associated Press photo
Ryan Crocker, the outgoing U. S. ambassador in Afghanistan, talks to  
the Associated Press on Thursday.
(Full-size photo)
Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, has been charged  
with DUI and leaving the scene of a Spokane Valley accident.

The 63-year-old retired diplomat is accused of colliding with a semi- 
truck at a busy intersection on Aug. 14, then driving away as a  
witness tailed him, authorities said. No injuries were reported in the  
2:05 p.m. collision.

Crocker, a native of Spokane Valley tapped by two presidential  
administrations for his Middle East expertise, is scheduled to appear  
for a pre-trial conference on Sept. 12 before Spokane County District  
Court Judge Sara Derr.

He retired from the U.S. State Department last month, citing health  
reasons, and left Kabul at a period of transition as the United States  
prepares to withdraw most of its troops from the long-standing war by  
the end of 2014. He also had served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq under  
President Bush, and had overseen reconstruction of the wartorn nation.

“Mr. Crocker decided he was going to turn eastbound onto Sprague and  
he turned directly into the path of the semi” causing a collision,  
Briggs said. “Mr. Crocker’s vehicle spun out. He fled the scene  
without stopping.”A call to Crocker seeking comment was not  
immediately returned.
A witness followed Crocker’s damaged Mustang until he stopped in the  
parking lot of the Washington Trust Bank located on Sullivan Road,  
about two miles away.“He was cited and released for DUI and hit and  
run,” Briggs said. The arrest occurred at 2:49 p.m.
Last week, though, Crocker was in a 2009 convertible Ford Mustang  
traveling north on Pines Road, approaching the Sprague Avenue  
intersection. State Patrol Trooper Troy Briggs, a spokesman for the  
law enforcement agency, said Crocker was in the lefthand lane shortly  
after 2 p.m. with a semi-truck, which also was traveling northbound,  
off to his side in the righthand lane.

His car suffered damage to the passenger side and when the trooper  
arrived, the right front tire was flat, Briggs said.

The investigation revealed that Crocker’s blood alcohol content was . 
16 percent and a second test registered .152 percent, Briggs said. The  
legal limit for intoxication is .08.
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