Posted on 09/15/2009 4:03:58 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Peter Galbraith’s exit from Kabul, even if temporary, is a rebuff to Richard Holbrooke, his long-time ally and a fellow big American trying to cut through the Afghan fog. The absence of the United Nations’ second most senior official comes during a new frost in relations between Washington and President Karzai and raises the question of whether Holbrooke, the US troubleshooter in the region, still has a plausible job to do.
For some weeks there has been a rumble of quiet questions about whether he might consider the end of the year the limit of his useful efforts — although they are dismissed as rubbish by State Department officials. It is also clear that there are many who would like him to leave, including some who represent great obstacles to progress, and they have every interest in promoting such suggestions. The questions seem as much a reflection of the Americans’ agonised indecision about what to do now.
When Holbrooke was appointed the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in January, his reputation for abrasiveness came with him. So did a reputation for success, in forging the deals between Bosnian factions that led to the 1995 Dayton peace accords.
His reputation for abrasiveness is intact. At the least, he has offended Minnesotans; in an offhand remark this month, he played down reports of delay and irregularities in the Afghan elections, saying that the Minnesota Senate race had suffered the same. He has also achieved some early successes — notably in Pakistan, where senior figures quietly credit him with helping to bring about crucial breakthroughs. One was persuading Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister and now the dominant figure in Punjab politics, to back a drive against militants, so laying the ground for the quelling of the Taleban this summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
This rubbish sounds like it was written by our Human Resources department! I expected to find information about a raid into Somalia mentioned somewhere in the first few paragraphs. Silly me! Instead, here is this screed excoriating over the possibility that somebody from the diplomatic corps might be pondering early retirement.
I think not. There are, apparently, some new trouble shooters in the region: Navy SEALs. Holbrooke can go home and stay there. The real "good guys" have arrived.
Not only that but Holbrooke never ever refills the coffee maker when he takes the last cup. And he didn’t sign the get well card for Dolores when she was in the hospital for liposuction.
Actually the lead unit on the raid was Delta.
Did the article title change? There’s no reference to Somalia in the article.
So the murdering cult members will go kill some children?
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