WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- By moving the U.S. ambassador to Colombia to Kabul as part of his war on terror staff reshuffle, President Bush has put the focus on Afghan counter-narcotics.
The White House named William Wood, the current ambassador in Bogota, as the United States' next man in Kabul in a statement Thursday. The post is subject to Senate confirmation.
Wood is a career foreign service official who worked at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, and later ran desk in the State Department that manages relations with international organizations like the U.N. and World Bank.
In Bogota, he has overseen a massive program of counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency aid and training to Colombia, which is battling leftist guerillas and drug cartels.
If the Senate confirms him, Wood will take over from Ronald Neumann, who has served since July 2005 as ambassador to Afghanistan -- where the new Democratic leadership of the Congress has pledged to step up counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics efforts, and commanders have called for more troops to combat an expected spring offensive by a resurgent Taliban, funded by drug money.
The move is the latest in a series of changes from the Cabinet down that Bush is making in the team running his war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
But Wood is likely to face stiff questioning from senators concerned about the situation he will be inheriting.
"Five years after we defeated the Taliban," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Friday, "extremists are returning, drug production is soaring, and attacks on the United States and NATO forces are on the rise. By all measures, the country is at risk of slipping away."
Wood, who is 56 years old, received his bachelor's degree from Bucknell University and his master's degree from George Washington University.
