Last night on my way home from work I heard an interview with David Holbrooke, the son of now deceased Richard Holbrooke, the Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama Administration. Mr. Holbrooke recounted how his father had become increasingly disturbed by how out of step his views were with those of the administration he served. He saw the Obama Administration as being poorly informed on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, convinced that they were knowledgeable and informed, and insistent on pursuing strategies that were doomed to failure.
I wonder when if ever the supporters of the administration will come to the realization that’s an accurate characterization of this administration not merely on its policies with respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan but with respect to its foreign and domestic policies more generally.
Maybe never. Dreams die hard.
You’ve got to be kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding.
Holbrooke was both poorly informed himself, and a typical Elite imperialist to boot, that is, not caring so much as long as Israel
was protected.
http://fpif.org/richard_holbrooke_a_statesmans_statesman_-_if_you_take_your_diplomacy_straight_up_with_no_principles_as_a_chaser/
“Some people occasionally wondered what would happen if Hobrooke’s rebarbative talents were unleashed on the great prevaricators in the Middle East. In fact, Netanyahu would have been safe — in a speech in Jerusalem Holbrooke made it plain that he considered UNSC resolution 242 as firstly, non-binding, despite most legal opinion that consequent resolution 338 made it so, and that it essentially allowed Israel to keep hold of territory.”
As US Ambassador to the United Nations he worked for the Zionist obtaining membership for Israel in the UN’s Western European and Others regional group, ending Israel’s historic exclusion from regional group deliberations and allowing it to, for the first time, stand for election to leadership positions in UN sub-bodies.
For this he was officially thanked by the Israeli government:
“Israel wishes to thank the governments of the WEOG states and, in particular, the United States government for their welcome decision. Israel also wish to convey its appreciation to President Clinton, Secretary of State Albright and US Ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke, for their firm support for its position.”
(From the official site of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Israel Accepted to WEOG – An Achievement for Israeli Diplomacy”, May 28, 2000.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holbrooke
“In January 2001, Holbrooke said that “Iraq will be one of the major issues facing the incoming Bush administration at the United Nations.” Further, “Saddam Hussein’s activities continue to be unacceptable and, in my view, dangerous to the region and, indeed, to the world, not only because he possesses the potential for weapons of mass destruction but because of the very nature of his regime. His willingness to be cruel internally is not unique in the world, but the combination of that and his willingness to export his problems makes him a clear and present danger at all times.”[48]”
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/10/21/scott_ritter_on_the_untold_story
“. People say why didn’t Saddam Hussein admit being disarmed? In 1992 they submitted a declaration that said everything’s been destroyed, we have nothing left. In 1995 they turned over the totality of their document cache. Again, not willingly, it took years of inspections to pressure them. But the bottom line is by 1995 there were no more weapons in Iraq, there were no more documents in Iraq, there was no more production capability in Iraq, because we were monitoring the totality of Iraq’s industrial infrastructure with the most technologically advanced, the most intrusive arms control regime in the history of arms control.
And we knew that while we couldn’t account for everything that the Iraqis said they had destroyed, we could only account for ninety to ninety-five percent, we knew that: (a) we had no evidence of a retained capability and, (b) no evidence that Iraq was reconstituting. And furthermore, the C.I.A. knew this. The British intelligence knew this; Israeli intelligence knew this; German intelligence. The whole world knew this. They weren’t going to say that Iraq was disarmed, because nobody could say that. But they definitely knew that the Iraqi capability regarding W.M.D. had been reduced to as near to zero as you could bring it and that Iraq represented a threat to no one when it came to weapons of mass destruction.”
Holbrooke? Did he ever think he might be wrong about something? Not sure i would use him as a basis for comparison. Anyway, I think that the Obama admin certainly relied too heavily upon the opinions of the military in formulating its policies there. They worked on how they should do things rather than on figuring out if we should have stayed involved at all. As to Obama;s general policies, he has made a number of errors, but then our second choice is not perfection, but rather the GOP running things. They would nearly always be worse, at least on foreign policy. Until the neocon element is not the dominant force in their foreign policy they should be kept out of the presidency. Remember, it can always be worse.
Steve