SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2010
KLMNO Holbrooke has operation for tear in aorta
collapse at StateDept. BY KAREN DEYOUNG
Diplomat in surgery for 21 hours after
Richard C. Holbrooke, the
Obamaadministration’sdiplomat- ic point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan, remained in critical con- ditionSaturdaynightafter surgery to repair a life-threatening tear in his aorta. Holbrooke, 69, is a keymember
of the administration’s war strate- gy team. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital on Friday morning after he be- came flushed and had chest pains duringameetingwithSecretaryof State Hillary RodhamClinton. He was almost immediately taken into surgery that extended for 21 hours into Saturday. With Holbrooke in intensive
care only blocks away, President Obama’s senior national security advisers met at the White House on Saturday to discuss a major internal assessment of the war in Afghanistan. Obama will review the assessment Monday, with re- lease to the public scheduled for later intheweek. Holbrooke’s family and mem-
bers of his State Department staff remained at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. In a state- ment, Obama said he had spoken withHolbrooke’swife, author and journalist Kati Marton, and told her that hewas praying for him. Obama called Holbrooke “a
towering figure in American for- eign policy, a critical member of my Afghanistan and Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant whohaswontheadmirationof the American people and people around theworld.” Clinton andAdm.MikeMullen,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the hospital Friday nightandagainonSaturday,along with Tom Donilon, Obama’s na- tional security adviser. Hospital spokesmen referred
questionstotheStateDepartment, which released a terse statement Saturday on his condition and the completionof surgery. The aorta is the major artery
carrying blood from the heart to other parts of the body. From the heart, it moves up through the chest toward the head, then bends andmovesdownthroughthechest and abdomen. Surgical repair of a tear inthe internalwall ispossible,
although serious complications in thebrainandextremities canarise frominterruptions inblood flow. Administration officials said
that Holbrooke’s condition would notaffect thewar review,compiled over thepastmonthby theNation- al Security Council staff from as- sessmentsmadebyHolbrookeand his staff and by themilitary coali-
tionledbyGen.DavidH.Petraeus. In statements in recent weeks, Obama, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and others have called the strategy a success and indicat- ed that they expect few, if any, changes. But some members of the ad-
ministration, including some in- telligence and military officials, are less optimistic that offensive operations in southern Afghani- stanwill leadtolong-termstability and the Taliban’s defeat in that region. They have also noted an expansion in insurgent activity in the northern and eastern parts of the country and the ongoing fail- ure of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to stemcorruption and es- tablish effective governance. Despitebillionsofdollars inU.S.
military and economic assistance, Pakistan has continued to resist U.S. urging to move aggressively against insurgent sanctuaries in tribal regions along the Afghani- stan border, an effort considered crucial tocoalitionsuccess.Obama has pledged to beginwithdrawing by July an unspecified number of the 100,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan,andthe49-nationco- alition there has projected a com- plete turnover to local military forcesbythe
endof2014.Although Obama’s Democratic base has pressed for a fasterwithdrawal, to decrease thehumantoll of thewar and its $100 billion annual cost, many Republicans have criticized thepresident for settingadeadline
tion of anonymity about sensitive internal deliberations, butClinton intervened to protect his job. Holbrookehashadhisownfrus-
TIM SLOAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Richard C.Holbrooke, special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is an important member of the administration’s war strategy team.
that they think favors theTaliban. More thanany other individual,
Holbrooke has been the spokes- man for the overall effort, testify- ingbeforeCongress, cajolingother governments to contribute and making countless trips to the re- gion. His long diplomatic experience
has given him a unique perspec- tivewithinthe administrationand has positioned himperhaps better than anyone to navigate the often messy intersection of diplomacy, counterinsurgency and politics. During the three-month policy re- view last year that led to the cur- rent strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he often referred to his experiences in Vietnam, where he began his career as a StateDepart- ment official and had a front-row seat onwhat came to be seen as an unwise escalation of U.S. military forces based on deceptive assess- ments. In the Clinton administration,
Holbrooke served as ambassador to Germany and assistant secre- taryof stateforEurope,andhewas the chief architect of the Dayton peace accords that resolved the Balkans crisis. He served as a senior foreign
policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomina- tion, and he was one of the first members of her team announced after Obama chose Clinton as his secretaryof stateafter theelection. Holbrooke’s sometimes abra-
sive style has raised hackles in the administration and partner gov- ernments, including with Karzai. Obama’s former national security adviser, James L. Jones, tried to persuade the president to fireHol- brooke as SRAP (the abbreviation for special representative for Af- ghanistan and Pakistan), accord- ingtoofficialswhospokeoncondi-
trations with internal sniping, congressional reluctance to fund thediplomaticandeconomic sides of the war effort, and the increas- ing power of themilitary to influ- encepolicy.His stockhas risenand fallen numerous times in the past two years as his intense yet open way of doing business—including extensive contacts in themedia— madehimaparticular targetof the military and some in the White House. His office on the State Depart-
ment’s ground floor has a diverse mix of policy experts and academ- ics, some of whom were hired precisely because they disagreed with theGeorgeW. Bush adminis- tration’s Iraqwar strategy and had little better to say about Obama’s efforts in Afghanistan and Paki- stan. He has been a strong advocate
of a negotiated settlement of the war and of massive increases in development and governance aid. Underhisdirection, thenumberof U.S. civilian officials in Afghani- stan has more than tripled, to exceed1,000.Oneofhis first initia- tives was to end the U.S. focus on poppy eradication in Afghanistan, on the grounds that removing the livelihood fromopiumproduction that sustainedmanyAfghan farm- erswas counterproductive. Holbrooke crossed swordswith
anotherpart of the administration in Pakistan, where he ordered an end to the automatic renewal of aid contracts with U.S. and other foreign nongovernmental organi- zationswith long histories there. He experienced health prob-
lems in August, when he under- went treatment forheartproblems and canceled one of his frequent trips toAfghanistanandPakistan. During ameeting Fridaymorn-
ing inClinton’s seventh-floor State Department office, Holbrooke be- came flushed and uncomfortable, officials said. Clinton insisted that he go to the hospital immediately and sent him, with aides, in her privateelevator tothemedicalunit inthe department basement. He collapsedinthe elevator and
was taken by ambulance to the hospital,where the aortic tearwas quickly diagnosed and surgery be- gan.
deyoungk@washpost.com
Staffwriters Rob Stein and Rajiv Chandrasekaran contributed to this report.
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