Richard Holbrooke: Last of the Big Beasts?

In a sense, Richard Holbrooke is one of the few American foreign policy hands of recent years whom one can mention in the same league as the Big Beasts that prowled through the Cold War and the Vietnam disaster (Holbrooke was there too: he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers). His death – as Brother Korski says – is a great loss for American diplomacy and the Afghan effort.

Holbrooke’s last words (as reported by his family) were “You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan” have occasioned much comment. Blake Hounshell, for instance, considers Holbrooke’s views on Afghanistan and asks if, latterly, Dick Holbrooke had discovered a dovish side.

I don’t know. But whatever the mess in Afghanistan – and however difficult it will be to extricate ourselves from it – Holbrooke’s final piece of advice was not, I think, directed towards Washington. Since the New York surgeon operating on his heart was born in Pakistan, it seems reasonably probable that the “You” refers to Pakistan.