The American Spectator : Like a Good Neighbor

Text Size

Like a Good Neighbor

By The Prowler on 7.8.10 @ 6:09AM

Richard Holbrooke is there, hoping to engage Iran.

Special Ambassador Richard Holbrooke is holding a series of private meetings with friends and advisers in Washington and New York in an attempt to launch a public relations offensive to counter any negative blowback from the Gen. Stanley McChrystal profile in Rolling Stone, where McChrystal belittled Holbrooke as a pest and political games-player who opposed the military's insurgency strategy.

"He's pulling in all his old friends from the Council on Foreign Relations and retired reporters who shill for him," says a State Department source, who has seen Holbrooke's schedule for the next couple of days. "[Holbrooke] figures that he has a finite period of time to fix any damage to his reputation before the Obama Administration begins to wonder whether or not he's a political liability."

Another element to Holbrooke's thinking, according to sources, is that, should he have a stronger hand in diplomatic activity in the region, he believes that with the U.S. military changeover in Afghanistan he may have some breathing room to push for back channel engagement with Iran. "He's been telling friends for several years now that he thinks that if the U.S. can help Iran with its drug-smuggling problem over the Afghan border, that Iran will help us with Afghanistan stabilization," says the State Department source. "It's kind of a cockamamie idea, but when you have a guy who is hesitant to bash the Taliban, what do you expect?"

Holbrooke on several occasions recently has gone soft on Iran, most tellingly when, during a conversation with senior Pakistani officials, he claimed that U.S. respected Pakistan as a sovereign country and that it was entitled to enter into a gas pipeline deal with Iran despite sanctions on Iran by the UN Security Council. A day later, after the State Department had what was termed by the State Department source as a "frank" discussion, Holbrooke told Pakistani officials that their pipeline deal might conflict with U.S. law, as well as EU sanctions, and that the Pakistanis should not over-commit to the deal.

Holbrooke's fascination with engaging with Iran is not new. Early in the Obama Administration, Holbrooke told an Afghan reporter: "It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan. They have a legitimate role to play in this region, as do all of Afghanistan's neighbors."

Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment

Melvin| 7.8.10 @ 7:44AM

The United States has been engaged with Iran since 1979, with no measurable success in cajoling, bribing, and or reasoning with Islamic religious fanatics.
What makes Mr. Holbrook think that he is going to be any different in changing Iran's religious philosophy?

2Anglico| 7.8.10 @ 8:40AM

Maybe Holbrook could get Obama to bomb Iran they way he convinced Clinton to bomb our WWII allies, the Serbs. Oh, wait, he bombed the Serbs because they were "persecuting" muslims, ... nevermind.

Louis Jenkins| 7.8.10 @ 8:44AM

More hogwash! Can't change a pig. A pig is a pig. He will wallow in his mud, onik, and grunt, but he's still a pig. Get him out of the mud, clean him up, and he will jump back in the first chance he gets. Holbrook is wasting his time. Far better to launch a nuke at the country and be done with the pig.

AMENBRO| 7.8.10 @ 10:40AM

Dadburn, fine piece.

Nothing else left to say but I wonder how many people's butts got this guys lip prints on both cheeks keeping his keister in a job. The man is obviously STUPID.

Course Sandy got caught with the "don't tick off the ARAB STREET" goods stuffed in every pocket & sock he had. Then after personal cell phone consultation with Slick Willie, good ole Sandy Berger started stashing the cache under building materials at a construction site. ..Google the official story of exactly what was revealed under oath concerning this. It will down right numb your senses while enlightening them to just how insularly insulated DC & Govt. employees are.

On a rare happy note for me lately,,,,,Good thing too or we'd be dealing with that insipid toad Sandy "Document" Bergler as well.

Its just too good how these PROGRESSIVES drop trou. If it wasn't such a serious threat to all,, some of us hold dear, it would be down right HI-LARRY-AS.

Lagniappe
Clinton, the enlightened 1st BLACK President told us Robert Byrd's racism was actually electioneering. IMAGINE THAT YAWL.

Alan Brooks| 7.8.10 @ 3:49PM

"Sandy "Document" Bergler "

Sticky fingers, eh?

AMENBRO| 7.8.10 @ 10:34PM

Yup you got it right Alan.

Sandy Berger was part of the Clinton National Security apparatus that was unable or unwilling to pull the trigger on more than one occasion when the US had the opportunity to eliminate TOP LEADERS like OBAMA I mean OSAMA via PREDATOR drones and other surefire blow their behinds to hail methods.
During the 911 commisssion Berger went in to the National Archives and got caught RED HANDED lifting interoffice memoes later to be discovered that the commisssion had viewed already.

The memos which had numerous CLINTON idiot syncophants, like Holbrook's, initials & recommendations on STATE dealing with the fantasy that we, as in MADELAINE HALFBRITE,,,,,DON'T want to PISS OFF THE ARAB STREET. Clinton was hell bent on a NOBEL in particular one for reaching a PLO/Israeli accord.

Well Well Well. Clinton bent over Isreal, aceded to ARAFAT's STATEHOOD demands. Low & behold Yassir,, the aids infected embezzler extraordinaire on September 28, 2000, Yasser declared the Intifada, 8 and Israeli-Palestinian relations fell apart over 50 square miles of barren wasteland.

Laignaippe
Monica Lewinski's fellatio prowess or lack there of actually kept YASSIR waiting in the wings on one occasion as well as Mecican Dignataries. Who knows what was goin on when he & Hill kept the King of Norway standing at the eaast enrtrance like haberdashers waitin fer a cab. RI-DIC-U-LOUS every single aspect of everything DEMOCRAT.. YAWL wonder why I'm so pissed. Blame 30 years of reading the American Spectator, National Review, The Conservative Chronicle, Foreign Policy and more other periodicals than I can remeber. Notice the list didn't include TIME OR NEWSWEEK or any other liberal johnny house cut squares appropriate publications!!!!
Laignaippe 2
Back then you couldn't GOGGLE IT, AND,,,a Johnny House is a PRIVY, An Outhouse i.e. a craphole devoid of waste water & solid removal for all you "so called" ed-u-cated types. Only reason these publications paper is used there is because its a little less painful than corn husks. Otherwise it was then & is even more so now PROPAGANDA worthy of the lefthand Islamic tradition.

Blackknights1802| 7.8.10 @ 4:02PM

Holbrooke, another brainless liberal who wouldn’t raise a hand to defend himself, if attacked. His solution is to defuse the situation by talking. Unfortunately, when someone believes that you are his or her enemy and he or she is willing to die in an attempt to kill you, talking doesn’t work.

Jim O'Brien| 7.8.10 @ 8:22PM

The only logical way to engage Iran is to bomb their nuclear sites into oblivion, "Yesterday".

Jason Ross| 7.8.10 @ 11:05PM

Oh, yah, First US begs Iran to help US to overthrow Talibans in Afganistan in the year 2000 and then US later calls Iran an axis of evil and then US tries to destabilize the Government of Iran with covert plans and threaten Iran with Nuclear bombs. Then US begs Rusia and China to impose sanctions on Iran. Now US wants to Kiss Iran's ass to help US in Afganistan. Does anyone realize how stupid this sounds ? This US hypocrisy is why the whole world is rebelling against the USA's leadership presently. Iranians are not stupid.