Family members are reporting that the late Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan who died yesterday following heart surgery, gave as his last words “you’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.”
The dying words stand in stark contrast to Holbrooke’s living words, which were almost uniformly supportive of President Obama’s repeated escalations of the Afghan War. They’re also a major inconvenience to the president at a time when he’s trying to spin the ever worsening war as a runaway success.
Indeed, President Obama has already released a statement praising Holbrooke and saying he deserves much of the credit for the “progress” in the disastrous conflict, and reiterated that “he understood” how important the war is. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also issued a statement on Holbrooke, and it too centered on how important the escalation of the war was.
Holbrooke had been a top foreign policy adviser to a number of Democrat presidents, and also served as a former Assistant Secretary of State and US Ambassador to the United Nations. He is described by those familiar with his work as deeply pragmatic, which may explain why his public comments were so upbeat about America’s various wars even as he appears to have been so conflicted that he chose to center his last words, not around family, but around ending the war.
The Taliban issued a statement later in the day claiming credit for Holbrooke’s death, saying that the failing war had done serious harm to Holbrooke’s health. They likened it to the failing health of a number of Soviet leaders near the end of their failed occcupation of Afghanistan. The statement did not mention his final words, however.
Deathbed repentance perhaps? It's easy to draw a sword and yell "charge!" when you don't have your mortality staring you in the face, but the guilt of innocent blood must begin to weigh heavily on a conscience as you see your own end approaching.
That was very well said.
The mask comes off as the light fades from his eyes
A tongue bathed in the bitterness of ancient lies
can no longer palate the fecal tang
A truth whispers its way out
drowned by the lament of bells
covered by the eulogies of those it silently damned.
gee, if we only had more high and mighty US officials receiving Hospice.
I'm sure the adminstration regrets not being able to kill the messenger themselves. Certainly before he was able to convey his message.
Looks like this neocon was truly a hypocrite, supporting perpetual war in order to further his own career. All the time knowing better. It's like Scrooge's business partner Marley coming back from the dead and bemoaning greed. But who am I to judge? I have lots of good charitable intentions that only stay intentions.
Exactly, and why ALL those who knowlingly start and perpetuate any war and have the power and influence of doing so are guilty of homicide and should be arrested and tried as criminals.
The duplicity, lies, dishonesty, spin, contradiction, duality that exists in the American political landscape is just plain and absolute manipulation at its worst…………..the government rulers are on their own…….the peasants really have no say………………the exact opposite of what we are told is usually the truth. The twin wars of Iraq and Afghanistan should NEVER have happened, but we slip further and further into the future, and our memories are dimmed by time………………
Fylly 89% of iraqis will tell you that they were better off under Saddham Hussein……….they had infrastructure, food, jobs and a fair amount of stability………………….now the country is basically levelled, it looks like a ghost country and depression is everywhere……………….the infrastructure is decimated. Billions have been stolen, contributing to the American recession…………………hundreds of thousands have been killed and maimed…………………but the good news is that we now control the oil and you are using it to drive around in your leisure………………
Propaganda works! The truth shall make you flee!
The duplicity, lies, dishonesty, spin, contradiction, duality that exists in the American political landscape is just plain and absolute manipulation at its worst…………..the government rulers are on their own…….the peasants really have no say………………the exact opposite of what we are told is usually the truth. The twin wars of Iraq and Afghanistan should NEVER have happened, but we slip further and further into the future, and our memories are dimmed by time………………
Holbrooke just another war criminal biting dust…!
I don't think his last words are going to make up for his participation in all these disasters. I'm glad he saw the truth at the end but what good does that do to the country if all his life he was working against it.
"I'm glad he saw the truth at the end"
He always knew the truth. Only is his last ten seconds did conscience trump career.
Well said. Reminds me of macNamara who also "saw" the truth LONG AFTER he was in a POSITION TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING about it.
Or, for that matter, Dwight Eisenhower, who deplored the military-industrial complex when he was leaving office but didn't do much about it when he was the President.
What hypocrites they all are – Holbrooke and Obama and the rest!
Holbrook was a war monger in central america responsible for many many deaths, when Kosovo was blowing it for an attack on Serbia he stepped in and did his job escalating retoric, he could not get the UN to back an attack but NATO did amid bribes and threats, then moved on to Afghan. Holbrook left a trail of death and disaster with every step he took – good riddance.
No need for more propaganda. He will be remembered for his accomplished whether negative or positive.
If Holbrooke was so concerned with stopping the war as to make those his last words, why didn't he actually do something before? Lord only knows that he was in the perfect position to speak up against but he didn't. So, is this a lie, hypocrisy or just pure drama? Quite honestly, I don't care to find out as I have zero regard for any and all of these shills involved in the perpetuation of Empire.
The article says he told his famous last words, probably the only sensible thing he has ever said, to "his Pakistani surgeon." This reportedly according to family members.
If this is true I'm afraid he might have been entirely delusional until has last waking moment. If he did say "you have got to stop this war in Afghanistan" to his Pakistani surgeon, then if history can offer us any guidance the most conservative and parsimonious assumption would be to take him serious in that he really did mean to say exactly what reportedly he actually said. As in You, Pakistani surgeons have got to stop this war and not we American diplomats have got to stop this war.
Okay, so now the Pakistani surgeon changed into an "Egyptian-American internist who is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's physician" (for now at least) with whom a different exchange followed as was reported here. In short there is no explanation needed for a supposedly sudden flash of insight and normalcy on the part of mr. Holbrooke, for there is now no longer any indication he ever had one.
I'd think twice about hiring a Pakistani surgeon after sending hundreds of unmanned robotic missile firing drones into his country to try to kill the right people
Richard Holbrooke and Antiwar.com have sort of grown up together. I can't say that he is a hero, but it is nevertheless sad to see him go.
Obviously Holbrooke valued his place at the seat of power more than the lives of Afghans.
Let me be the first to offer the obvious quote: "Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it."
****
King Duncan:
Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?
Malcolm:
My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die; who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons,
Implor'd your Highness' pardon, and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.
Not much different than Robert McNamara and his woebegone about face about the american invasion and war in Vietnam.
The Taliban are quite the clowns, are they?
Like those french dudes in the castle attacked by Trojan Rabbit.
Last words of peace from a man who was not hesitant to throw his weight around in other countries and back it up with violent actions by US ….Must be Holbroke's idea of a joke.
Agreed Joe, except that he didn't throw HIS weight PERSONALLY around. That's what the chumps who join up are used for.
If Holbrooke did say this it hasn't been reported anywhere I saw or heard today. This purported deathbed plea seems at odds with his longstanding role as a diplomatic thug for the American empire.
Sounds like post mortem reputation clean up to me. These supposed indispensible roving capos for keeping the natives in line and shoving American foreign policy down the throats of our "allies" are a dime a dozen. Good riddance!
The talking heads on mainstream teevee are cozy in bed with the war party, so don't expect any of them to report anything about Holbrook's wishes to put a stop to the Afghan War!
man i wonder what other administration officials we could get to have a grand meacopa if only they were on their deathbeds
I wonder if Dick Cheney will have any deathbed conversions?
As the pirates sang in "Treasure Island"
Ho, Ho. Ho and a bottle of Rum.
Mr. Holbrooke "he dead a penny for the old guy." (apologies to T.S. Elliott). Famous last words "The horror, the horror."
So "what exactly did Mr.Hlobrooke live for"?Oh Human,Oh Human………….
By the rules he laid down for other nations, Richard Holbrooke deserved the death penalty many times over.
Interesting last words. I remember Colin Powell said that he flat-out lied before the UN General Assembly about having secret documents that proved al Qaeda was involved in 9/11, justifying a U.S. invasion. He said it was the blackest stain on his honor. A clear admission of lying, but no one hears of it today. Likewise no one will hear of Holbrooke's words a month or so from now. Why? Because the media owners want the wars to continue. They will just keep repeating the lie that Ahmadinejad "said Israel should be wiped off the map" instead.
Whether his last words were a 'deathbed confession' of a sort or not is newsworthy, but quite irrelevant. What was done on his watch is a matter of record now, and I'm sure Allah(swt) will be more than happy to explain his fate when the time comes. Paradise or Punishment, Holbrook is out of time- I hope he chose his life's deeds wisely.