Just the Man for the Job
Richard Holbrooke’s not going to be Secretary of State and he’s not going to be Deputy Secretary. I think the feeling is that he would regard the remaining jobs available is unworthy of his stature. And yet Spencer Ackerman has an intriguing suggestion — perhaps Holbrooke should be our next Ambassador to Baghdad. After all, even those of us who haven’t always agreed with Holbrooke on some issues would have to concede that he’s really excelled as a troubleshooter and a negotiator. And even as the tactical military situation in Baghdad has improved, our relationships with different Iraqi factions have gotten ever-more-complicated, and the current team’s efforts to (metaphorically) crack some skulls over there and reach some kind of consensus on what we’re going to do next have been rather lackluster.
One might analogize the situation over there to the issues in the Balkans when Holbrooke helped spearhead the Dayton Accords and bring slash push people together. Indeed, Holbrooke himself has drawn the analogy:
But the world has more or less turned its back on Bosnia itself. I returned to see how things were going. What I found has relevance to many other areas, including Iraq. [...] No agreement is worth much if it is not vigorously implemented and enforced. Political arrangements must reflect historical and ethnic realities. A unitary state with a strong central government may work in France or Japan, but not in Bosnia — nor, I believe, in such places as (to choose from many) Iraq, Afghanistan or Sudan. There (as in the United States, Germany and India), power must be shared between the central government and the states or provinces. The United States must recognize this in Iraq.
I can think of a bunch of reasons why Holbrooke might not want to do this, but I honestly can’t think of anyone who comes to mind as a better candidate.
34 Responses to “Just the Man for the Job”
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November 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
…and bring slash push people…
Maybe he really is using speech recognition system to type his posts.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Holbrooke is a Jewish neocon-lite. Surprised Lieberman hasn’t snatched him up as his liason to the Democrats.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
This seems like a good idea to me. Holbrooke is very talented, and it would be a shame not to use that talent in some capacity.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
There are some points in his favor, but at Wikipedia I find no indication that he speaks Arabic, which seems like it would be a good thing.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Being the Ambassador to Baghdad would also put him in charge what may be the largest embassy in the history of humanity, which I assume is designed to serve as a sort of headquarters for the entire US Middle East presence, not for our relations with Baghdad.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
He’s definitely an asset worth utilizing somewhere; he really thought he was going to be Sec. of State in 2005….. except Kerry forgot to win the election.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I find no indication that he speaks Arabic
Sounds like he speaks Kurdish.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Holbrooke is one of the leaders of United Against a Nuclear Iran, a gang of Middle East hawks that includes James Woolsey, Dennis Ross, Karen Hughes, Fouad Ajami, Walter Russell Mead and others. Any of us whose memory cells have not been completely fried by the catastrophes of the past eight years only needs to take one look at that rogues gallery on their website to feel a shiver of bad memories associated with similar groups formed before the Iraq War, and know that they are bad news. They are provocateurs and hardliners seeking to stoke passions, drum up fears, bang the war drums and head off any realistic diplomatic opening toward detente with Iran. Patrick Barry over at Democracy Arsenal is promoting Holbrooke for all-purpose Middle East envoy, which is daft. Holbrooke should be allowed nowhere near Obama’s Middle East portfolio!
And by the way, don’t let the banal name of this group fool you. This really has nothing to do with whether you think Iran should be prevented from getting a nuke. I don’t want Iran to get nuclear weapons either. But if James Woolsey, Fouad Ajami and Dennis Ross were leaders of a group called “United Against Cruelty to Puppies”, a rational person would suspect there is more than puppy love going on there.
We’ve seen this routine before with Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, PNAC and other such groups preaching forceful regional transformation. A lot of us have been pretty tolerant of some iffy Obama picks, but now is the time to put our foot down. No Holbrooke.
November 27th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Holbroke has a long history, some parts of which (like his involvement in the Balkins were useful), and other parts of which, (like his administrative role in opposing the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979 [an invasion that overthrew the Khmer Rouge] and supplying arms via Sianouk to the Khmer Rouge) could use some careful investigation. On what little I know of the latter, I’m not happy with Holbroke holding any position at the present time…not change, as far as I can tell, that I can believe in. I am, however, open to persuasion.
November 27th, 2008 at 7:46 am
The really tough job is not the one in Bagdad, it is the one in Islamabad. The Pakistani interlligence agency, the ISI, is training and arming Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the groups which carry out terrorist attacks in India. The latter and Al Qaeda also carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. So somehow we need to attack Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the ISI, all based in Pakistan, without engaging the Pakistani government or army. Oh, and the CIA is good friends with the ISI, so they won’t help the US against the ISI.
November 27th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Or maybe appoint someone who is not responsible for the misery that is Iraq? Just a suggestion. Does he need to be employed in our foreign policy apparatus? I think not.
Amongst the DC crowd it seems he is charity case, like someones dimwited child, who needs employment, somewhere somehow.
I know the market is hard right now, but we could let him try his hand in the private sector. It would be more rewarding for both him (monetarily) and the country.
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