richard holbrooke

Big scoop from Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy: right in time for that closed door briefing to the Senate on the metrics for judging progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, here the metrics are. I can’t help but notice in light of this post that it begins with a restatement of the anti-al-Qaeda goal that the [...]

I don’t know how much credit to give this Times of London story, but it reports in detail that there was a fight between Kai Eide, the head of the United Nations’ mission to Afghanistan, and the seniormost American in the mission, former Ambassador Peter Galbraith, a lion in the human-rights community. Galbraith reportedly left [...]

Sure, the interview was Friday, but the Defense Department just released the transcript of Defense Secretary Bob Gates’ interview with Al Jazeera, and it’s hard not to notice Gates’ “correction” of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who said a few weeks ago that “we’ll know” success in Afghanistan “when we see it.” Gates, politely, attempts here to [...]

Laura Rozen, newly minted Politico hire, posts the integrated civilian-military campaign plan for Afghanistan from Amb. Karl Eikenberry and Gen. Stanley McChrystal. And if you turn to an appendix, you can find an elusive, chimerical beast: metrics for measuring progress. Well, sort of. They may not be the National Security Council’s metrics, but the document [...]

Remember when I reported that the Obama administration and its allies were looking to salve legitimacy concerns in the Afghan presidential election by encouraging a broad coalition government? In Paris, a meeting of foreign envoys to Afghanistan produces this:
There was a sense at the Paris meeting that Mr Karzai would remain in power and that [...]

Anthony Cordesman, a highly respected defense analyst and adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s review of Afghanistan strategy, writes an op-ed that has an undercurrent of “McChrystal versus the world” running through it. For instance, there’s this blink-and-you’ll miss it reference, in a section about what it will take for McChrystal and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry [...]

Reading beyond the Dade County references (made by the special envoy I suppose we must now call Richard LOLbrooke) in this Los Angeles Times piece about the Afghanistan presidential and provincial elections, there are some useful indications of how U.S. officials are anticipating problems with the vote. For instance:
One U.S. official said that it was [...]

As long as we’re talking about the future composition of the Afghan government, a reliable source informs me that the next round of the U.S./Pakistani/Afghan governmental talks is scheduled for October. More as it develops, as I’m not yet sure whether the meeting will be in Washington again.

As a fitting supplement to my piece today, here’s Josh Foust’s bottom line:
If Hamid Karzai wins, it’s the failing status quo, and a powerful narrative that democracy doesn’t work. If Abdullah Abdullah somehow wins, then he’ll have to deal with the powerful entrenched interests in Kabul that even Karzai couldn’t meaningfully change—which would mean a [...]

With Thursday’s presidential election in Afghanistan proving difficult to forecast, some analysts in and outside the Obama administration are considering U.S. options if the next government is viewed as illegitimate.