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Subject: ‘Little America’: Infighting on Obama team squandered chance for peace in Afghanistan
CJH    6/25/2012 12:25:32 PM
"‘Little America’: Infighting on Obama team squandered chance for peace in Afghanistan" Excerpted from “Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan.”

"As the White House and Holbrooke bickered, promising leads withered.

In July 2009, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sent a personal message to Obama asking him to dispatch someone to meet with a group of Taliban emissaries who had opened up a rare line of communication with the Saudi intelligence service. The Saudi intelligence chief had already met with the U.S. ambassador to Riyadh and the CIA station chief there to discuss the initiative, but the Saudis deemed the discussions so promising that Abdullah asked his ambassador to Washington to discuss the matter with Jones. Holbrooke figured the overture was worth pursuing. But the offer languished at the NSC.

The NSC eventually expressed support for reconciliation in the spring of 2010, but with a twist: Lute favored a U.N. envoy to lead the effort. His preferred candidate was former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, who had served as a U.N. special representative to Afghanistan. Lute’s plan relegated Holbrooke to a support role.

Lute argued that Brahimi had Karzai’s trust and that he could deal with Iran and Pakistan in ways that a U.S. diplomat couldn’t. There was also the opportunity to shift blame for failure. 'If this doesn’t work,' he told colleagues, 'do we want to own it or do we want the U.N. to?'

It seemed a masterstroke — except that the Afghan and Pakistani governments despised the idea. Everyone in the region wanted the United States to lead the effort. They knew the United Nations was powerless.

Clinton was furious with Lute. 'We don’t outsource our foreign policy,' she declared to Holbrooke and his staff. Then she went to Obama to kill the idea.

Even with Brahimi rejected, Lute resumed his efforts to find someone else to take charge of reconciliation, this time focusing on retired American diplomats.

'It was driven by hatred,' said an NSC staffer who worked for Lute. 'Doug wanted anybody but Richard.'"

 
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