WASHINGTON: “You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan,” Richard Holbrooke, President Barak Obama Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, told his Pakistani surgeon before entering into surgery according to family members, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.Holbrooke, a 69-year-old foreign policy veteran, spoke just before he was sedated, the newspaper said.The diplomat had been serving until his death as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Obama administration. Though Holbrooke is believed to have seen the war in Afghanistan as winnable, he allegedly struggled in his dealings with the Afghan government – particularly when it came to the country’s widespread corruption and lack of functional public services.
In a statement, President Obama called Holbrooke, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize seven times (including for his work brokering the war-ending Dayton peace accords in former Yugoslavia), a “true giant of American foreign policy who has made America stronger, safer, and more respected.” The president also praised Holbrooke’s work in Afghanistan and Pakistan.The progress that we have made in Afghanistan and Pakistan is due in no small measure to Richard’s relentless focus on America’s national interest, and pursuit of peace and security,” Mr. Obama’s statement read.“He understood, in his life and his work, that our interests encompassed the values that we hold so dear.”Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also lauded his work for the administration, and emphasized that while he was a “fierce negotiator,” she considered him “a fiercer friend and a beloved mentor – App
