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.
Holbrooke has also called for vigorous action to deal with extremist sanctuaries in Pakistan. He charged that Pakistan has the power to destabilize its neighbor Afghanistan, "and has."
He has even taken a shot at the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood, saying that because of his support for using herbicides on opium poppies, he's known in Kabul as "Chemical Bill." The nickname is a reference to Ali Hassan Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin, who became notorious for ordering poison gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds and was given the name "Chemical Ali."
To Afghans, Holbrooke's appointment reinforces tough talk by Vice President Joe Biden, who signaled in a visit last month that the United States could scale back its support for Karzai unless he changes his ways.
But the U.S. message "has been met with a groan in Kabul," said Daniel Markey, a South Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who worked in the State Department under the Bush administration.
Pakistani officials are trying to decide what to make of Holbrooke's appointment.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari wrote a column last week praising and welcoming Holbrooke. But Zardari also included a warning seemingly intended to keep Holbrooke from complaining about Pakistani inaction against extremists in the border areas.
"With all due respect, we need no lectures on our commitment. This is our war," Zardari wrote in the Washington Post.
Indian officials expressed approval after Holbrooke's mission was reshaped at the last moment to exclude the territorial dispute over Kashmir, which has divided India and Pakistan for decades.
