President Obama's Strategy In South Asia Is Starting To Unnerve America's Allies

Richard Holbrooke, pictured with President Obama, is best known as the architect of the Dayton peace accord of 1995 that ended the war in Bosnia. Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

Appointment Of Richard Holbrooke Unnerves
South Asia -- Wall Street Journal

The new envoy, a veteran diplomat nicknamed 'the Bulldozer,' called the Afghan government a failure and put pressure on Pakistan to battle extremists.

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama has taken painstaking care in the first days of his administration to calm the waters of international relations with promises of cooperation and respect for other nations.

But his new envoy to South Asia has landed with a splash.

Officials in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have reacted uneasily to the appointment of Richard Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat nicknamed "the Bulldozer."

Holbrooke, who embarks on his first official visit this week, has declared in recent months that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a longtime American ally, has failed. In opinion columns, he has pointed to "massive, officially sanctioned corruption," along with drugs, as the country's most severe problems.

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My Comment: Is it better to deal with the devil you know .... than the devil that you do not know?

We are probably going to know the answer with Richard Holbrooke and the situation in South Asia this year.