From Holland, Michigan - founder of Tea Party - against gay rights - opposes women's rights - loves Geert Wilders and his stance on immigration and Islamophobia. A representative of the other half of America ... not our moral compass as we live by in "Old Europe".

○ Gay rights opponent picked as ambassador to Netherlands by Trump | The Guardian |
○ American Freedom Alliance: Pete Hoekstra and Geert Wilders

In anticipation perhaps of a new U.S. ambassador to The Hague, the Dutch have moved the embassy out of the city center for security reasons to a lovely pasture surrounded by sport fields and across the from the parks where the Dutch Royal family will soon live. Not much of the embassy building can be seen from the outside as the main levels are subterrain in bunker facility. A wise decision. Well, at least it's a green construction for sustainability. The building is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council and is targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Silver certification.

Peter Hoekstra  [1953] - Exploring Dutch Heritage

Hoekstra has been honored by a number of organizations for his work in the U. S. Congress. In 2004 he received the U. S. Chamber of Commerce "Spirit of Enterprise" award. Also in 2004, Americans for Tax Reform, awarded him the "Hero of the Taxpayer" award. Earlier, in 2003, Citizens against Government Waste awarded him the "Tax Payer Super Hero" award. And in the year 2000 Habitat for Humanity named him "Public Official of the Year".

I guess the Dutch got a worse deal in the past ...

Obama nominates bundler Timothy M. Broas

To be the U.S. ambassador to a foreign country, it's not necessary to speak the native language or even to have visited the place. Like many presidents before him, President Obama has nominated numerous major campaign fundraisers and political allies to represent the United States overseas.

In fact, in his second term in the White House, Obama has nominated 23 so-called bundlers for plum diplomatic posts. This  map from the Center for Public Integrity shows where these well-connected figures are headed.

Paul L. Bremer III was U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands from 1983-1986. Bremer had served under Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig in the Reagan administration. He was known as a security and terrorism expert (counterterrorism). He callled Iran a nation funding and supporting terrorists across the globe. Bremer must have loved the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, just as Donald Rumsfeld and CIA's support for intelligence. Use of poisonous gas in attack on Halabja.

Former Amb.  to the Netherlands Paul Bremer security analyst ran CPA office in Baghdad, Iraq

The former diplomat published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, titled, "Only America Can Prevent a Disaster in Iraq." In the opinion piece, Bremer criticized President Barack Obama for his 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, saying that the U.S. lost considerable political influence over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and left behind an unprepared Iraqi military.

"Only the Americans can help the Iraqis broker across these sectarian and ethnic lines," he said on MSNBC. "There is nobody else who can do it."

Bremer also spoke out against the potential partition of Iraq into three regions based on ethnic lines, a proposal outlined by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2006.

Where did ISIS come from? The story starts here. | Boston Globe |

Soldiers of Misfortune? | U.S. Army War College |

Another diplomat used similar language to describe what he observed: Blackwater guards "behave like Iraq is the Wild West and Iraqis are like `Injuns,' to be treated any way they like," he observed. "They're better-armed and -armored than the military, but they don't have to follow military rules, and that makes them dangerous."

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headed by L. Paul ("Jerry") Bremer did much to encourage what some have called a "culture of impunity." In June 2003, Bremer issued CPA General Order No. 17:

1. Coalition contractors and their sub-contractors, as
well as their employees not normally resident in Iraq,
shall not be subject to Iraqi laws or regulations in matters
relating to the terms and conditions of their contracts
in relation to the Coalition Forces or the CPA.

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide