Remembering Richard Holbrooke

Richard Holbrooke epitomized the Washington elite which though much derided believes in America and rises to serve on her behalf.

One of America’s top diplomats and premier foreign policy Democrats, Richard Holbrooke, passed away yesterday after undergoing a second round of emergency surgery for a torn aorta.

Holbrooke was just 69, but had been a Washington fixture for decades. Indeed, he epitomized the Washington elite -- the patriotic, even if flawed, Washington elite, I should say -- which, although much derided, believes in America and rises up to serve on her behalf.

Certainly, Holbrooke’s life was one of consummate public service – from his days as a foreign service officer in Vietnam in the 1960s to his time as Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Obama administration. And, in between, Holbrooke served in every Democratic presidential administration.

For President Johnson, Holbrooke helped examine the war in Vietnam. He also wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, while serving in the American delegation to the Paris peace talks.

Holbrooke later served as a Peace Corps director in Morocco before signing on with the Carter administration as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

In the Clinton White House, Holbrooke served as Ambassador to Germany, Assistant Secretary for European and Canadian Affairs, Special Envoy to the Balkans, and Ambassador to the United Nations.

Holbrooke is credited with crafting and negotiating (in 1995) the Dayton Accords, which ended the three-and-a-half-year-long war in Bosnia. But his track record in Afghanistan, unfortunately, was much less successful.

Holbrooke and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, reportedly clashed with the top American military commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. And they had seriously strained relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai never trusted Holbrooke; and he seems to have resented Holbrooke’s overweening arrogance and hubris. For example, as AOL News’ Senior Washington Correspondent Andrea Stone reported last June:

Holbrooke also has ruffled feathers. The special envoy reportedly got into a shouting match with Karzai after last year's flawed presidential election. Their relationship has been strained ever since, raising questions about Holbrooke's often abrasive style -- especially after the envoy was nowhere to be found during Obama's trip to Afghanistan this spring.

Holbrooke’s and Eikenberry’s diplomatic failures in Afghanistan caused two United States Senators -- John McCain (R-Arizona) and Kitt Bond (R-Misouri) -- to call for their ouster last June. Another Senator, Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) also expressed grave doubts about Holbrooke’s and Eikenberry’s ability to do their job.

With the arrival, last summer, of Gen. Petraeus, Holbrooke’s relations with the U.S. military improved, but not, it seems, his relations with Karzai, which reportedly remained troubled and distant.

Indeed, the Washington Post reports:

As Mr. Holbrooke was sedated for surgery, family members said, his final words were to his Pakistani surgeon: "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan."

That sounds great to peace-loving and chardonnay-sipping liberals sitting in Manhattan and Georgetown. But to Karzai and other hard-headed Afghans fighting a difficult and brutal war in some of the world’s most rugged terrain, it meant just one thing: Holbrooke doesn’t want to win this war; he wants to end it. Holbrooke isn’t with us; Holbrooke is against us.

Needless to say, this has made success in Afghanistan much more difficult. Still, no one ever doubted Holbrooke’s patriotism and love of America.

“I’m saddened by the passing of Richard Holbrooke,” tweeted John McCain. “My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. America has lost one of our most able diplomats.”

“Richard Holbrooke was a colossus of American diplomacy,” added Joseph Lieberman.

From Vietnam to the Balkans and now Afghanistan and Pakistan, the history of our nation's foreign policy over the last 40 years is inseparable from Richard's own remarkable and courageous life -- which was spent, both inside and outside government, in the distinguished service of the country he loved and in pursuit of the most noble ideals for which it stands.

Richard Holbrooke: patriot, public servant, Democrat, larger than life, flawed, and all too human. A member of the Washington elite; and a faithful practitioner of American diplomacy for more than 40 years. RIP.

John Guardiano blogs at strong>www.ResoluteCon.Com<, and you can follow him on Twitter: strong>@JohnRGuardiano<.