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2010-09-01
Study: CEO Compensation Totaled $598 Million At The 50 Companies That Laid-Off The Most Workers

Peak Oil And The German Government - Military Study Warns Of Potentially Drastic Oil Crisis

Mystery Over Russian General Found Dead On Turkish Beach

Internet Freedom - Will Russia's Bloggers Survive Censorship Push?

Life In Baghdad's Slums - Fighting to Survive In Sadr City

Moral Bankruptcy At HSH Nordbank - Investigators Look At Frameup And Iniquity At German Bank

Study: Illegal U.S. Immigration Has Slowed Considerably

Inquest Told MI6 Employee's Body Was In Padlocked Bag

Report Claims Andy Coulson, Prime Minister's Media Adviser, Discussed Hacking Phone Calls

Ferrari Recalls 458 Italias After A Spate Of Fires

Probe Of Alyeska Pipeline Spill Uncovers Troubling Pattern

Defiant Dick Fuld Blames False Rumors And The Fed For Lehman Bros. Collapse

U.S. Toll Rising In Afghanistan, 22 Soldiers Killed Since Friday

Charity Oxfam Hit By Fatal Bomb As U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Visits Troops In Afghanistan

Gov. Schwarzenegger Tells Top California State Officials To Stop Hiring

Australian Economy Surges 1.2 Percent In Second Quarter

Police: At Least 1 Hostage Taken At Discovery Channel Headquarters

U.S. Sen. Murkowski Concedes Primary Election Race To Miller

2010-08-31
U.S. Salmonella Scare: Farm Inspections Reveal Manure, Mice And Maggots

U.S. Warns East Coast To Brace For Impact Of Hurricane Earl

Commentary: The Sarrazin Debate - Germany Is Becoming Islamophobic

Commentary: The Sarrazin Debate - Germany Is Becoming Islamophobic

Hell On Earth - The U.N. Documents Congo's Bloodbath

Baghdad On High Alert As U.S. Officially Ends Combat Mission

Mexico Seizes 'La Barbie', Drug Lord Infamous For Beheadings

Greenland's Prime Minister Lambasts Greenpeace For Raiding Arctic Oil Rig

Interview With Ex-CIA Agent Michael Scheuer - 'Only The Taliban Are Not Corrupt'

'I Did Nothing Wrong' - German Gulag Prisoners Recall Their Ordeal

Stock Investors Brace For Another Ugly September

Four Israelis Shot Dead Near Jewish Settlement On Eve Of White House Talks


Interview With David Holbrook: 'We Are Not In Afghanistan To Build A Perfect Democracy'
2009-11-24 17:42:20 (40 weeks ago)
Posted By: Intellpuke
(Read 813 times || 0 comments)

The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, spoke to German news magazine Spiegel about Washington's goals in Afghanistan, President Obama's new war strategy and the prospects of handing over responsibility to the government in Kabul.

SPIEGEL: You were part of President Johnson's Vietnam team, you even wrote some parts of the Pentagon Papers, which uncovered the real history of the Vietnam War. What have you learned from that experience and can you draw on in your current job?

Richard Holbrooke: I was a very young man when I worked on Vietnam between 1963 and 1969. I worked in the field and in the Johnson White House, as well as being a member of the negotiating team in Paris. I watched people confront great decisions, and from that close observation, I think I learned how to approach such difficult moments and try to analyze them.

SPIEGEL: With that experience in the back of your mind, do you think it really pays for the United States to fight wars in far-off and unstable lands, especially those that have acquired a reputation for being a "graveyard of empires?"

Holbrooke: Of course it's difficult to fight in Afghanistan. But it's necessary because of 9/11. That is the core difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam. We're not in Afghanistan to build a perfect democracy. We know these were not perfect elections. But we must go ahead, we must help the Afghans strengthen their own capabilities. We're not there to take over the country, we're there to help the Afghans build their own capacity so that their security forces can replace the international forces over an acceptable period of time.

SPIEGEL: Has the thought crossed your mind, even for a brief moment, that American troops might leave Afghanistan the way the Soviets left Afghanistan, namely defeated?

(story continues below)




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