 Following the replacement of Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal, US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke is likely to be the next target, a report says.
| Bloody brilliant. Three hips and a hurrah to whoever floated that rumour, and double that for the one who talks President Obama into doing it. |
The prospects of Holbrooke's ouster were raised after the White House sidelined him during months of crucial talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.
"He's a dead man walking, but he could be walking for some time," the paper quoted a source who has worked closely with Holbrooke.
Officials familiar with the case blame Holbrooke for having failed to develop much of a relationship with either the Afghan or Pakistani governments.
| That'd be our dear friend Anonymous, completely unrelated to Rantburg's own Anonymoose. |
"Ambassador Holbrooke has really struggled to build relationships with the civilian and military leaders in Afghanistan, and the military leadership in Pakistan," Andrew Exum, a former advisor to McChrystal and a fellow at the Center for a New American Security said.
| A good part of that is because the honourable gentleman is a dreadful diplomat, which little fact he seems to have completely missed. For him that will forever remain an unknown unknown, poor man, and he will wander through the rest of his life, bewildered as to why he did not succeed as magnificently as he and his many friends dreamed. |
| He has the unique ability, for a diplomat, to irritate just about everyone he encounters ... |
Holbrooke, however, rejected the idea of having a modest role in overseeing the current state of affairs, saying in an email message earlier this month that he was in Madrid to oversee "one of those high-level meetings that I hear I am not involved in."
| But did they tell him in which rooms those meetings were taking place? |
| He was there to count and polish the State Department silver ... |
The report comes as McChrystal was sacked after he caused fierce controversy with his scathing criticism of certain administration officials in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
| It's starting to look like the Rolling Stone article was a tactical defeat but a strategic victory for General McChrystal. |
Holbrooke was one of the US officials who had come under attack by General McChrystal and his team.
The replacement of Holbrooke would be seen as coming too soon as McChrystal's firing has caused much confusion and controversy in the White House. |