There are certain kinds of second-tier confrontations which the U.S. does not need to get directly involved in. However, even in the second tier of problems, our intervention as a friend to both sides is important. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
By the way, if you do your job on behalf of your country, you have meetings where you put your position forward strongly, and the other side does the same thing. And I’ve had plenty of meetings in my career that really were heated, people yelling at each other. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
In short, you can’t let the deadline define the mission. The mission has to define the duration. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
There’s no question that the next generation of terrorists, rather than going for small, little dramas, will go for the big one. They now understand that the way to get the world’s attention is not strapping bombs to themselves in a pizza parlour, but to do something so horrific it gets you into the Guinness Book of World Records for terrorism. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
I think Americans understand that in Afghanistan, unlike in Iraq and Vietnam, we are fighting an enemy allied with the people who attacked us on 9/11. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
We should not be surprised that democracy is imperfect even in Western countries. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
I have worked in every – every Democratic administration since the Kennedy administration, and I know dysfunctionality when I see it. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
Pakistani politics is complicated, and I think it’s not something a foreigner can easily assimilate and understand. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
I’m not a wide-eyed imperialist who wants to see Americans manning outposts all over the world. Not outposts to freedom in the cold war cliche, but islands of stability and seas of ethnic strife. That is not what anyone should feel comfortable seeing Americans doing. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
People in uniform are not sacrosanct. They don’t have all the answers. The use of force is a political decision at its core, in terms of its objectives; then the military, as the experts, must be brought in to tell you how to do it. Richard Holbrooke Read Quote
