Holbrooke's Last Mission the Most 'Complicated' of His Career

Updated 10:05 a.m. Renowned U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, most recently President Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died after sudden illness at the age of 69. Our James Fallows and Jeffrey Goldberg remember him here and here.

According to The Washington Post, family members report Holbrooke's last words with his Pakistani surgeon as being, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan." In October, speaking with ABC's Christiane Amanpour at The Atlantic's and the Aspen Institute's Washington Ideas Forum, Holbrooke spoke of U.S. success in Afghanistan as being linked essentially to U.S. leverage with Pakistan -- and described the U.S. relationship with Pakistan, which it was his final work to manage, as "more complicated than any strategic relationship I've been involved in."

See Marc Ambinder's account, and the full video, of Amanpour's interview with Holbrooke here.