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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Quote Of The Day 2

Dec 14th, 2010


"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan." -- the last words of the late Amb. Richard Holbrooke
Posted by F. Grey Parker at 7:12 AM

1 comment:

  1. UnknownDecember 14, 2010 at 9:49 AM

    Yeah, Holbrooke felt that way for about one minute.

    I still see that man as the architect of nation building in Afghanistan. The same old strategy of "win the hearts and minds" of the Pakistani military (the bully next door) while keeping our military commitment of counter-insurgency for the long haul. He's tailor-made for the CIA and Pentagon's war machine that assists our transnationals in setting up trade shop.

    One part of a recent New Yorker profile on him still makes me cringe: "Holbrooke was now vetting U.S. aid contracts for Afghanistan. But, in the absence of any meaningful government in most of Afghanistan’s provinces, there was always a temptation to do things faster and better by going around the Afghans. “ ‘The dependency track,’ ” he read aloud, explaining, “The more help they need, the more dependent they get for their help, and then it’s ‘Ah, let the Americans do that.’ In Vietnam that’s exactly what happened.”

    In Afghanistan, that is still happening.
    With this Kennedy career service diplomat gone, we now have a vacuum to be filled by many of his patrons and protegees. God help us.

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