Here Andrew Bacevich reviews a book by Khalizad about Khalizad:

Quite a résumé! The reader yearns to share in the insights gleaned over the course of Khalilzad’s self-described “journey through a turbulent world.” Alas, either he has few insights to offer or he chooses to pull his punches. While the relative brevity of The Envoy counts as a plus, the contents tend to be bland and the judgments circumspect. The overall result must rank as a disappointment. Given his genuinely extraordinary career, the author owes himself a better book than he has produced.

Perhaps understandably, Khalilzad devotes the preponderance of his attention to his tenure as U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Chapter titles summarize the overall interpretation that the narrative advances. After “Accelerating Success in Afghanistan,” Khalilzad sets about claiming the “Fruits of Democracy” there. Then upon moving to his next post, he devotes himself to “Repairing Iraq,” before “Forging a National Unity Government” in Baghdad.

On his watch, thanks to his savvy as a diplomat, things got better. Once he left, they inexplicably fell apart. Khalilzad’s bottom line would seem to be this: if you’re not happy with the way things turned out, don’t blame me.

But then who or what are we to blame? Since 9/11, in the region of the world that became Khalilzad’s principal beat, U.S. policy has been profoundly unsuccessful. (Granted, even prior to 9/11, it wasn’t all that much better.) Who better than Khalilzad, the Afghan outsider turned Washington insider, to elucidate the mix of factors that caused things to go wrong?

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dont-blame-me-im-just-the-viceroy/

The things that can go wrong? Yes. Actually, what Khalizad did not realise is that he was used as a clown in a circus or in bull fighting ring, as a foil and as a magic trick conjurer who was distracting the crowds while the pickpockets were doing the rounds. This is why the magic did not last. As well, the magic was just that, a trick of the hand which the people knew was shifting the cards deftly. Lovely skill... but now lets go back to reality...

The clown did not learn anything about the public he was distracting while his master committed robbery. He lived in a "diplomatic" clown caravan and he performed on regular intervals. He is not the ring master. True. And he was not the only one. Others like Ahmed Chalabi were used to perform a different style of clowning. Chalabi was employed to fill Blair's dossiers and the CIA with made up stories about WMDs...

Once people know the ring master is a crook, the people might watch the clowns because their brothers paid with their life for a ticket, but they don't trust the circus, because of the blood on the ticket. The people might even bring the tent down while the clown can say in earnest he was just doing his job... Idiot. self-deluded idiot.