November 27, 2008

Holbrooke to Islamabad?

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HOLBROOKE TO ISLAMABAD?….Spencer Ackerman thinks Barack Obama ought to ask Richard Holbrooke to be his ambassador to Iraq:

Is there any U.S. diplomat more qualified than Holbrooke — a former U.N. ambassador, among other things — to preside over and cajole the creation of a national sectarian political compact in Iraq? Unlike anyone else in the U.S. foreign policy community, Holbrooke actually did this before, in the middle of a Balkan shooting war, and he’s given a lot of thought to the ways in which his Balkan experience is relevant to Iraq. If we’re to take seriously the idea that the U.S. needs energetic diplomatic action to broker a political settlement in Iraq to accompany withdrawal, there isn’t really anyone else for the job.

Sure, but here’s another thought. If he’s willing to stay on, why not keep Ryan Crocker in the job and ask Holbrooke to go to Pakistan? Crocker gets pretty good marks from everyone and he already knows the lay of the land in Baghdad, while Pakistan is really ground zero these days for a hard ass diplomat who can figure out a way to get people who hate each other’s guts to somehow work together. For my money, it’s the most important diplomatic post in the world right now.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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