Compelling – Charlie Rose is a great interviewer. Holbrooke reassures with his confidence and competence. Even if you wish for a bit more real information.

It is also interesting to briefly take note of the U.K.’s role in the region.

On Feb. 9, the British Foreign Office announced the appointment of Sir Sharad Cowper-Coles as the London special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, obviously in answer to the Holbrooke appointment. Cowper-Coles has had a highly interesting career: he is an “Arabist” in the long British tradition, and served as U.K. Ambassador to Israel and then Saudi Arabia, and in May 2007 was appointed Ambassador to Kabul. This would generally have been considered a “demotion” after Riyadh, which is considered a stepping stone to higher-level posts, the Guardian has noted, but not in this case: Sir Sharad took the appointment gladly, and said in a video made soon after his arrival in Kabul, that the British embassy there is being expanded, to include 128 personnel, making it one of the largest in the world. Sir Sharad also intervened at the height of the BAE scandal, calling on the British Serious Fraud Office to end the investigation. [Briefly, that involves billions in invisible funds for terrorism through a U.K.-Saudi operation. gm]
http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2009/02/19/british-foregn-office-focusing-afghanistan.html

I wish there were someone as impressive as Mr. Holbrooke speaking for the new presidential administration on the economic front.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10094

I was hanging on every word just as pt 1 ended!

Counter-insurgency training is tricky in that if teach someone and their loyalties shift to “the dark side” then you have created yet another issue.

I agree that the Pakistan’s have a very difficult problem on their hands. I hope that Holbrookes’ attempt to have them shift resources back to the Afghanistan border is effective. He is wrong when he suggests that India did not take the bait and move troops following the Mumbai attacks. That was reported in the Indian papers and had quotes from Indian officials.

It is a difficult question as to how to deal with the bullies of humanity. Hope is a dangerous thing to offer someone if what it is predicated on does not materialize.

The government’s capitulation is one more signal that the policy of fighting Islamic terrorism inside Pakistan is failing, a defeat for U.S. policy, and a tragedy for Pakistan’s people.