Tuesday, December 14, 2010

'Giant' Holbrooke Failed on Afghan War

By Ray McGovern
December 14, 2010

President Barack Obama hailed Richard Holbrooke, who died Monday, as “one of the giants of American foreign policy.” The President’s kudos reflected the Establishment gravitas that Holbrooke, the special envoy overseeing U.S. policies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, had acquired in his long career — fact and reason to the contrary.

Read on.

7 comments:

JonnyJames said...

From article: "It is hard to escape the conclusion that Holbrooke shared the view of Henry Kissinger, another devotee of Realpolitik diplomacy who had little regard for the humanity and value of common soldiers."

And even less regard for the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of imperialist military aggression. The Empire doesen't even bother to count or barely mention the victims of the atrocities.

Thank you Mr. McGovern for shining a light on the neck-deep BS.

Holbrooke like Kissinger was/is an elitist, morally-bankrupt, blood-soaked, imperialist, ethnocentric hypocrite of the highest order.

It is quite typical that the Corporate Media Oligopoly (CMO) lauds these types as "giants" and "great statesmen". Very Orwellian, pardon the expression.

Want to be even more disgusted? Just wait until Henry K. kicks the bucket.

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Unknown said...

Thank you so much, Ray McGovern. Listening to the media's hagiography, I began to think I was the only holdout who despised Holbrooke's lifetime project: mass murder in the name of democracy.

Holbrooke, who changed his name to sound more British, started his "diplomatic" life with the heinous Phoenix program in Vietnam -- using torture, often of random men and women -- to show that power, which "must not be ignored', is on "our" side.
In this, his career parallels Colin Powell's: do the dirty work, speak eloquent gibberish, and always cover for your bosses. H's true legacy will resemble the notoriously devious advisors to Popes and the old French monarchs than a "giant" of democracy.
So, thank you, RMc, once more, for putting paid to yet another Lie-in-Progress, sponsored by power "elites" and carried out by media who have lost their moral compass.

DCG

Anonymous said...

I take Ray's side in this matter of Holebrooke..

Yes, could we, should we speak well of him after just passing.... Yes!!! We should.....if we could.... But only myopia and insensitivity could be our reasons to let the BullDozer slip away scot-free... I will omit the harm he may have wrought at Dayton and before in his service to (our) empire. I see that those whose lives were upended are doing quite well protesting how they were bulldozed into supine compliance with the losses as much as everything,husbands,wives..children!
Like the good Germans, not werking the death camps...but doing their part as a cog in awful machine of death with no dissent....is how I see this "giant".....only WORSE!!!

The reason is Omar Khadir..!! Yes, that Omar Khadir.... the CONVICTED WAR CRIMINAL... and the BOY, captured at 15 in Afghanistan...who may have thrown a grenade at invading U.S. fighters during a firefight.. Any person involved in the machine of atrocity of the U.S. torture of that child that remained silent is no "giant" but a feckless moral coward and their stature belongs along with Pol Pot and the Nazis..

I agree with JonnyJames NOT Ethan Allen... with the caveat, I do not accuse Holebrooke of any crime(s), but of moral cowardice and humane indifference to the suffering [TORTURE]of children!!! May he spend the eternities defending his ill deserved legend: 'greatness'
I believe the limited record shows a certain insensitivity and smallness..the little dozer that could... but didn't

Thank you again and again Ray.. For your courage to call out those among us that practice the happy raw raw for our side blindness and worse...conquest and genocide.. Thank you for the steady course you steer.. MvGuy

mario said...

As is always the case in the obscure world of politics, the criminal "giant" is elevated to the heroes' pantheon, while the dumb "small" one is thrown to the lions' den.

Ethan Allen said...

Robert,

As you know full well, I have supported your work for many years, and have joined in the quest of building a viable alternative to the mainstream corporate media.
In the face of this common cause and record, I find it very strange that my comments on Mr. McGovern's missive about the death and life of Richard Holbrooke have been deleted from your blog without the courtesy of an explanation, or any notice of reason.

To disabuse anyone that said deletion actually occured I submit the following excerpt from one of your "Anonymous" commenters.
"I agree with JonnyJames NOT Ethan Allen... with the caveat,..."

For what its worth, there was nothing in what I had to say that was founded on unsubstantiated fact or idle conjecture, it was motivated by my sincere conviction that the distinction between OPinion/EDitorial writing and factual reporting is one that must not be conflated, lest mere belief trump reason and truth suffer the loss.

Anonymous said...

Mr McGovern does not do Holbrooke full justice by failing to mention the "Bulldozer"'s contribution to the genocide in Srebrenica and the dismemberment of Serbia.
One more irony: Holbrook died on the very anniversary of the Dayton Accord.
Flags are probably NOT flying at half mast there, except maybe on the buildings of the Kosovo telecommunication companies in which Madeleine Albright and her cronies are profitably invested.