Posted on 06/24/2012 6:43:48 PM PDT by Perdogg
In late March 2010, President Obama’s national security adviser, James L. Jones, summoned Richard C. Holbrooke to the White House for a late-afternoon conversation. The two men rarely had one-on-one meetings, even though Holbrooke, the State Department’s point man for Afghanistan, was a key member of Obama’s war cabinet.
As Holbrooke entered Jones’s West Wing office, he sensed that the discussion was not going to be about policy, but about him. Holbrooke believed his principal mission was to accomplish what he thought Obama wanted: a peace deal with the Taliban. The challenge energized Holbrooke, who had more experience with ending wars than anyone in the administration. In 1968, he served on the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam. And in 1995, he forged a deal in the former Yugoslavia to end three years of bloody sectarian fighting.
The discussion quickly wound to Jones’s main point: He told Holbrooke that he should start considering his “exit strategy” from the administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
An obvious observation here...but this administration has so many different Czars and cabinet-level-but-not-a-real-cabinet-members....that you can’t really accomplish anything within your sphere of influence. I hate to suggest it, but it is similar in nature to what Jimmy Carter had going on in 1978-1979.
Why would you negotiate with people who throw acid in little girls faces?
My daughter has a friend in the National Guard who was deployed to Afghanistan. He is home now but told her he has already been told he will be deployed there again in 2014. Doesn’t sound like this horrible war is gonna end any time soon.
Perhaps the the move toward dumping Obama for Hillary is starting--in earnest.
This article does not cast a very positive light on Obama--but Hillary seems to shine.
Very interesting!
Clinton was furious with Lute. “We don’t outsource our foreign policy,” she declared to Holbrooke and his staff.
Chalk one up for the Dragon Lady. I will point out, however, that insourcing it into the hands of rank amateurs such as herself is not necessarily a better idea.
More and more articles in the MSM negative about Obama and his people. Sometimes I wonder if they don’t really want him to lose so the Dems have a better chance in 4 years...
I think Obama hoped to alleviate his incompetency as an executive by appointing more and more middle managers. That, and he probably figured he could insulate himself from the fallout of his unconstitutional actions by having more levels of subordinates to take the fall for him.
1. If everyone did not want to work with Holbrook, then MAYBE there's a problem with Holbrook and not the military guys, who try to work with everyone? He's always come across as an ego maniac.
2. Problem is Obama being feckless, not about policy?
3. Geee, maybe trying to transform Afghanistan into a modern society where women get an education and have the right to vote just might not be worth the lives of some 2000 KIA given the tribal stone age islamic mentality among the people (who by the way really love to fight and kill).
They loathe outhouses......which would be an upgrade.
You can't take a walk in Afghanistan without being mindful of feces everywhere.
Then there is the pagan homosexuality, bestiality and pedophilia. What you say? After working over here for almost 2 years, I believe the percentages are higher here than in western nations.
We rightfully think that America is going to “Hell in a hand basket”.........these people are simply waiting to greet us upon our arrival.
Yeah, I remember taking a short cut down a back alley. Turned out those are ad hoc outhouses. Not a pleasant experience.
Ya think? It is a damn shame that the one non-corrupt pro-western guy who might have unified the country was assassinated a couple of days before 9-11. See my Freeper page.
I'm not sure even a superman like him could have accomplished the task, but at least he would have had a shot at it.
Holbrooke, Biden, and CIA were right.
In the same way that we treasure freedom, the Pakhtun treasure anarchy, always have, always will.
The Pakhtun are the Taliban.
We told all that we are leaving, they believe us and see no reason to talk aout or say good bye in a nice way.
Today’s Afghan National Army and police are the grandsons of the same men that switched sides to the Taliban after the Russians left. Guess whom they’re listening to?
We are training the next Taliban how to kill their own people.
Hashish use by the ANA is endemic and constant, rarely are more than half of deployed units able to go on patrol daily.
We are doing some good, building roads and buildings, etc. But it is not worth the cost and most programs will collapse after we leave.
Karzai will never control more than Kabul and barely controls that now. Trust in his government is a fantasy.
The only thing all Afghans believe is to skin the Americans of as much money as possible while they can.
The most successful agricultural program in history that America has ever participated in is the cultivation of poppies and the subsequent production of opiates in Afghanistan.
No other crop has ever expanded as much and generated so much more additional income for any people anywhere.
Pull out now, the Chinese want the resources, let them pay for it in blood as we have.
What a tragedy that so many soldiers lost their lives over there.
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