I didn’t post about his remarks earlier because it all seemed very odd. Sure Holbrooke was a diplomat, but his last words were to call for an end to the military aspect of the AfPak strategy? Something was off, I thought.

And I was right. An aide to Holbrooke says his remark was a pre-surgery joke aimed at a colleague who was trying to make him feel better. It wasn’t meant as a plea to change American policy.

As Dr. Jehan El-Bayoumi was attending to Holbrooke in the emergency room at George Washington University Hospital, she told him to relax and asked what she could do to comfort him, according to an aide who was present. Holbrooke, who was in severe pain, said jokingly that it was hard to relax because he had to worry about the difficult situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

El-Bayoumi, an Egyptian-American internist who is Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s physician, replied that she would worry for him. Holbrooke responded by telling her to end the war, the aide said.

The aide said he could not be sure of Holbrooke’s exact words. He emphasized Tuesday that the comment was made in painful banter, rather than as a serious exhortation about policy. Holbrooke also spoke extensively about his family and friends as he awaited surgery by Farzad Najam, a thoracic surgeon of Pakistani descent.