by F. Grey Parker
He was that rarest of public figures; he was a warrior for peace. The heart of an idealist rested inside him. And yet, he served as a pragmatic and tough diplomat in Democratic administrations starting with JFK. To put it plainly, he wasn't in Washington to make friends.
As followers of current events know, it was Holbrooke who was tapped by the Obama Administration to seek the end-game in our disastrous Afghanistan misadventure. No small task.
I argued for a strong military response and intervention in Afghani frontier during the early weeks after 9/11. However, the war as prosecuted by the Neo-Con ridden George W. Bush regime was more poorly conceived and ill-fought than anyone could have predicted. Of course, there was also the problem of sending a vast majority of our fighting forces to the wrong country.
As I watched in horror, our government did everything they could to ensure a quagmire. Bush's principle interest seemed not the capture and elimination of Taliban and Al Qaeda radicals. Rather, the operations in the Middle Eastern theater seemed designed to secure territory for future development of the pipeline once proposed by UNOCAL.
Now, after nine years in that desolate and cursed moon-scape, we are trapped. Where we go from here is anyone's guess. But without Holbrooke, our exit with honor will surely be much harder to achieve.
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