Holbrooke: "We Are Treating Afghanistan And Pakistan As A Single Theater"



(image via concierge)

For the past few months the foreign policy elite in the Obama administration have abbreviated the complicated Afghanistan-Pakistan portfolio, the frontline in the War on Terror, held by Richard Holbrooke as "Afpak." Similarly, President Obama has -- of late -- not mentioned the country Afghanistan without, within the same breath, said "Pakistan."

Richard Holbrooke formally legitimized the civil union on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, saying, in response to Dick Cheney's critique of Obama's national security policy, "(the Obama administration) is treating Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theory."

This, of course, is a massive change -- and more than merely rhetorical -- from the approach of the Bush administration. It also suggests that popular will on the Afghanistan front -- the so-called "graveyard of Empires" -- is petering, and linkage to Pakistan, which has over 100 nuclear devices, is necessary.

Twitter/Breaking News: "Reuters: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says US envoy Holbrooke had a brief and cordial exchange with th Iranian minister in the Hague."