Richard Holbrooke made a special point of being in Kabul on election day. Indeed, Washington’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan took rather more personal risk to observe democracy in action than some Afghan presidential candidates.

While Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, voted amid high security in a school gym beside the heavily fortified presidential palace, Mr Holbrooke was to be found sitting on desks in a school, watching veiled women casting their votes.