Gobsmacking cynicism, or, gosh, what's an Afghan to think, eh?

First, from Milnews.ca:

AGAIN with the "Special Envoy"?

Earlier, from Paul Well's blog at Maclean's magazine:

Hey look: Holbrooke’s getting a new temp

From his story in the magazine:

...
Then something changed. Instead of the Liberals asking for an interlocutor for Holbrooke, Holbrooke asked.

Maclean’s has learned that the Harper government is on the verge of appointing a member of the Canadian government who will work as part of Holbrooke’s Washington team. “Canada is currently considering potential candidates for an assignment in Mr. Holbrooke’s office,” Jamie Christoff, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, wrote in an email.

“This contribution is being considered as we are partnering even more closely with the U.S. to deliver on crucial governance, reconstruction and development work in Afghanistan.”...

For Canada, as for every country involved in Afghanistan, the question is how to get out of something we are in so deeply [emphasis added]. The Commons has voted for a military pullout in 2011. What does that mean? A foreign diplomat arriving in Ottawa this month was told by Canadian officials it means that “every Canadian soldier will leave Afghanistan in 2011, except perhaps for the military attaché at the embassy.”

There is no reason to expect that will change. But there was no reason to expect the Harper government would name an Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy either. And then the Americans asked.

Back at the Afghans:

...
We ask Afghans for help in defeating the enemies, yet the Afghans expect us to abandon them. Importantly, Mr. Filkins pointed out that Afghans don’t like to see Americans living in tents. Tents mean nomads. It would be foolish for Afghans in “Talibanastan” to cooperate with nomadic Americans only to be eviscerated by the Taliban when the nomads pack up...

Half-solutions failed in Iraq and are failing in Afghanistan. There will be no cheap, easy or quick compromise that will lead to long-term success...

Mr Wells, move to Afstan. And eat your own cleverness.

Update: More on the "temp" (a bit prematurely), from a major New Yorker profile (p. 7) of Holbrooke by George Packer:

...
Holbrooke has taken over two suites of offices at State Department headquarters, filling them with a staff that has grown to some thirty people. (He had told Clinton that he would need around fifteen.) Nine government agencies, including the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the Defense and Treasury Departments, and two foreign countries, Britain and Canada, are represented in the office...

Via J.M. Heinrichs.

Upperdate: Upon reflection I realize that I was using Mr Wells individually--and unfairly--as a metaphor for a Western unwillingness to be serious about our commitments. For that I apologize. He obviously has no personal responsibility to give heart to the Afghans. And his writing about Afghanistan has treated the matter much more seriously, and with a greater effort to be informed, than the vast majority of our journalists. See, e.g., this post from Nov. 2.