WASHINGTON: The news of Richard Holbrooke’s sudden death engulfed diplomatic circles in Washington with an ineffable sorrow. His condition was reported critical but stabilising a day earlier, as his doctors hoped for a slow recovery after a lengthy surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. But the 69-year-old special representative for US and Afghanistan could not survive.
Holbrooke, whose forceful style earned him nicknames such as “The Bulldozer” and “Raging Bull,” was admitted to the hospital on Friday after becoming ill at the US State Department. Keeping up to this reputation, Holbrooke fought for his life for four days and three nights. In US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s words, “His doctors marveled at his strength and his willpower, but to his friends, that was just Richard being Richard”.
But the United States was not the only country that he loved. His latest preferred country was Pakistan. His staff members believe that it was not just the US that lost a brilliant diplomat, but Pakistan lost a sincere friend in Holbrooke. He took his work as a special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan so seriously that he spent most of his time travelling to these countries. He stayed nearly a month in Afghanistan when he was assigned this job by US President Obama in 2009.
The former US ambassador to the UN was widely considered “one of the most talented diplomats of his generation,” as Obama said in January last year. Just yesterday Obama called him the “toughest son of a gun”. It was this reputation that won him both friends and foes. There was no middle ground for him.
Holbrooke appeared to be one of those intelligent and experienced diplomats who knew his job way before he took it up. In a thank you speech right after his announcement as special representative, he said, “In putting Afghanistan and Pakistan together under one envoy, we should underscore that we fully respect the fact that Pakistan has its own history, its own traditions, and it is far more than the turbulent areas on its western border”.
As special envoy, Holbrooke emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the Obama administration’s foreign policy team. He had developed official as well as friendly relationships with the leaders from South Asia. His vision and understanding of the region can be gauged from this declarative statement he made last year while expressing worry about an expanded Taliban hold over western Pakistan. He said, “You can’t send troops into Pakistan. That’s a red line.” In different meetings, whether with Pakistani diplomats, politicians, or with White House officials and military personnel, Holbrooke had been seen defending Pakistan.
His last words to his Pakistani doctor were, “You have got to stop this war in Afghanistan”. He battled for Pakistan in Washington, he was Pakistan’s true friend.
