.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finds her diplomatic mojo in Pakistan
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is nothing if not strong, determined and resilient. The world has seen her rise above circumstances that would have reduced lesser leaders to rubble: from the failed healthcare reform effort she championed during President Bill Clinton’s administration to her public stoicism and gutsy resolve when Bubba was caught philandering with the intern in the blue dress. She carved out an unlikely new role for herself as Senator from New York; then saw a substantial lead in the Democratic presidential primary wither away as the country elected its’ first black president instead of the first woman president.
Refusing to be vanquished, Mrs. Clinton was then passed over for the VP slot but had the class, gumption, and dedication to America and the world to step into the visible and powerful role of Secretary of State at a time in world history when many things are just plain screwed up.
Just in case the world needed reminding,Secretary Clinton showed she’s got game by making a very dangerous, highly visible trip to Pakistan. If facing down terrorist threats, bombs, and growing anti-American sentiment weren’t enough, Secretary Clinton single-handedly changed the course of American diplomacy and the foreign policy efforts of the Obama administration when she called the Pakistan regime out on its’ support for the war on terrorism. Indeed, the trip itself took guts, but it was what Secretary Clinton said to a group of Pakistani journalists on the world stage that made people everywhere stop, take notice, and Twitter all about it.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall during her meeting with Pakistani journalists when she tossed diplomatic protocol aside and kicked hurt feelings to the curb when she said, “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they (Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership) are, and couldn’t get to them if they really wanted to,” she said, adding, “Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.” One can imagine the scene as pokara potato snacks got caught in shocked and constricted throats; eyes bulged with pupils as small as spots on a dalmation, while frantic hands knocked over tall glasses of sweet yogurt lassi in disbelief.
Secretary of State Clinton called Pakistan’s regime suspect partners in the war on terror. She put a voice to thoughts America and the world were reluctant to express, and she fixed her hosts with that steely Clinton gaze, that regal countenance that could grace currency, and unflinchingly implied that they were either marginal liars or massive liars. Either way, Clinton made her point, and added an exclamation point that the Obama administration’s engagement dialogue on foreign policy issues was not to be taken lightly.
Pakistan has only had a dog in the terrorist hunt because then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s aide Richard Armitage told them the day after 9/11 that Pakistan “would be bombed back into the stone age” unless they got on board and helped close the noose around the throats of the Taliban while the U.S began a tireless hunt for Osama Bin Laden. President Pervez Musharraff relented, but only after determining that Armitage would be proven right, because the U.S. would most certainly unite with Pakistan’s arch-rival, India, to wipe the floor with Musharraf’s regime in retaliation for Pakistan’s supportive relationship with the Taliban.
Though Pakistan relented, the government is continuously fending off challenges from within from the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency). In his illuminating book “Descent Into Chaos” , author Ahmed Rasheed describes the ISI as “the military’s all-powerful and much-feared intelligence agency, which for two decades had run Pakistan’s covert wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir, had harassed dissidents at home, and was now the principal supporter of the Taliban regime”. Rasheed goes on to detail how Pakistan , at the behest of Taliban leader Muhllah Omar, evicted Hamid Karzai, from Pakistan, where he had lived since 1983 because Omar grew tired of Karzai’s anti-Taliban posturing from the safety of Pakistan. Rasheed’s description is based on events just prior to September 11, 2001.
Historically, Pakistan has always played both sides against the middle.
Thus, it may have been this knowledge, coupled with years of suspicion that Pakistan had been double-dealing in the war on terror that motivated Secretary Clinton to unprecedented candor. Prior to this trip, many in the U.S. had questioned whether the Secretary had been marginalized in foreign policy, as Vice President Joe Biden took control of the Afghan War debate; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates monitored military strategy talk; husband President Clinton travelled to North Korea to free two American journalists taken hostage and then held court on ‘Larry King Live’ the night before a worldwide meeting of the U.N; and just recently, Soviet Union Prime Minister Valdimir Putin chose instead to go to China to negotiate a fuel deal, leaving President Dmitry Medevev to meet with Clinton.
Sensing that Secretary Clinton might have been feeling knocked down, kicked around, and just plain disrespected, the ‘Today’ show’s Ann Curry asked her about feeling marginalized in an October interview. Clinton responded, “I believe in delegating power. I’m not one of these people who feels like I have to have my face in the front of the newspaper or on the TV every moment of the day”, she said, adding “it would be irresponsible and negligent were I to say, ‘Oh no, everything must come to me’. When Curry pressed her further on policy decisions, Secretary Clinton told Curry that she is part of a team that makes policy decisions, and left it at that.
Thus, it was likely a by-product of the whisperings of such sentiment that prompted Secretary Clinton’s bold pronouncement; and, perhaps Clinton didn’t appreciate having a massive suicide bomb go off in a Peshawar market upon her arrival, cannibalizing the very women and children that she champions around the world. Further, Clinton has had to face down belligerent, ungrateful, and insolent students and leaders who ceaselessly challenged her and blamed the United States for Pakistan’s recent trouble with Taliban insurgents.
She put Pakistan on notice that after 10 years and billions of dollars in U.S. aid to this ‘partner’ in the war on terror, she wasn’t convinced that Pakistan seemingly has no clue where the Al Qaeda leadership is hiding, within Pakistan. It was a vintage diplomatic performance the likes of which America hasn’t seen since Ronald Reagan famously exhorted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to “…tear down these walls” at the fall of Communism.
Thus, despite Pakistani’s whining to the world that they are insulted by Clinton’s untrusting words, the Secretary of State made it crystal clear that it will no longer be possible to continue to take billions in aid with one hand, while whispering our anti-terrorism plans to the enemy.
Clinton's message was conveyed and understood loudly and clearly; and no one tossed any shoes her way.
Examiner
Refusing to be vanquished, Mrs. Clinton was then passed over for the VP slot but had the class, gumption, and dedication to America and the world to step into the visible and powerful role of Secretary of State at a time in world history when many things are just plain screwed up.
Just in case the world needed reminding,Secretary Clinton showed she’s got game by making a very dangerous, highly visible trip to Pakistan. If facing down terrorist threats, bombs, and growing anti-American sentiment weren’t enough, Secretary Clinton single-handedly changed the course of American diplomacy and the foreign policy efforts of the Obama administration when she called the Pakistan regime out on its’ support for the war on terrorism. Indeed, the trip itself took guts, but it was what Secretary Clinton said to a group of Pakistani journalists on the world stage that made people everywhere stop, take notice, and Twitter all about it.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall during her meeting with Pakistani journalists when she tossed diplomatic protocol aside and kicked hurt feelings to the curb when she said, “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they (Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership) are, and couldn’t get to them if they really wanted to,” she said, adding, “Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.” One can imagine the scene as pokara potato snacks got caught in shocked and constricted throats; eyes bulged with pupils as small as spots on a dalmation, while frantic hands knocked over tall glasses of sweet yogurt lassi in disbelief.
Secretary of State Clinton called Pakistan’s regime suspect partners in the war on terror. She put a voice to thoughts America and the world were reluctant to express, and she fixed her hosts with that steely Clinton gaze, that regal countenance that could grace currency, and unflinchingly implied that they were either marginal liars or massive liars. Either way, Clinton made her point, and added an exclamation point that the Obama administration’s engagement dialogue on foreign policy issues was not to be taken lightly.
Pakistan has only had a dog in the terrorist hunt because then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s aide Richard Armitage told them the day after 9/11 that Pakistan “would be bombed back into the stone age” unless they got on board and helped close the noose around the throats of the Taliban while the U.S began a tireless hunt for Osama Bin Laden. President Pervez Musharraff relented, but only after determining that Armitage would be proven right, because the U.S. would most certainly unite with Pakistan’s arch-rival, India, to wipe the floor with Musharraf’s regime in retaliation for Pakistan’s supportive relationship with the Taliban.
Though Pakistan relented, the government is continuously fending off challenges from within from the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency). In his illuminating book “Descent Into Chaos” , author Ahmed Rasheed describes the ISI as “the military’s all-powerful and much-feared intelligence agency, which for two decades had run Pakistan’s covert wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir, had harassed dissidents at home, and was now the principal supporter of the Taliban regime”. Rasheed goes on to detail how Pakistan , at the behest of Taliban leader Muhllah Omar, evicted Hamid Karzai, from Pakistan, where he had lived since 1983 because Omar grew tired of Karzai’s anti-Taliban posturing from the safety of Pakistan. Rasheed’s description is based on events just prior to September 11, 2001.
Historically, Pakistan has always played both sides against the middle.
Thus, it may have been this knowledge, coupled with years of suspicion that Pakistan had been double-dealing in the war on terror that motivated Secretary Clinton to unprecedented candor. Prior to this trip, many in the U.S. had questioned whether the Secretary had been marginalized in foreign policy, as Vice President Joe Biden took control of the Afghan War debate; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates monitored military strategy talk; husband President Clinton travelled to North Korea to free two American journalists taken hostage and then held court on ‘Larry King Live’ the night before a worldwide meeting of the U.N; and just recently, Soviet Union Prime Minister Valdimir Putin chose instead to go to China to negotiate a fuel deal, leaving President Dmitry Medevev to meet with Clinton.
Sensing that Secretary Clinton might have been feeling knocked down, kicked around, and just plain disrespected, the ‘Today’ show’s Ann Curry asked her about feeling marginalized in an October interview. Clinton responded, “I believe in delegating power. I’m not one of these people who feels like I have to have my face in the front of the newspaper or on the TV every moment of the day”, she said, adding “it would be irresponsible and negligent were I to say, ‘Oh no, everything must come to me’. When Curry pressed her further on policy decisions, Secretary Clinton told Curry that she is part of a team that makes policy decisions, and left it at that.
Thus, it was likely a by-product of the whisperings of such sentiment that prompted Secretary Clinton’s bold pronouncement; and, perhaps Clinton didn’t appreciate having a massive suicide bomb go off in a Peshawar market upon her arrival, cannibalizing the very women and children that she champions around the world. Further, Clinton has had to face down belligerent, ungrateful, and insolent students and leaders who ceaselessly challenged her and blamed the United States for Pakistan’s recent trouble with Taliban insurgents.
She put Pakistan on notice that after 10 years and billions of dollars in U.S. aid to this ‘partner’ in the war on terror, she wasn’t convinced that Pakistan seemingly has no clue where the Al Qaeda leadership is hiding, within Pakistan. It was a vintage diplomatic performance the likes of which America hasn’t seen since Ronald Reagan famously exhorted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to “…tear down these walls” at the fall of Communism.
Thus, despite Pakistani’s whining to the world that they are insulted by Clinton’s untrusting words, the Secretary of State made it crystal clear that it will no longer be possible to continue to take billions in aid with one hand, while whispering our anti-terrorism plans to the enemy.
Clinton's message was conveyed and understood loudly and clearly; and no one tossed any shoes her way.
Examiner
posted by madtom at 9:48 PM
4 Comments:
When did we decide that people who fail, only to come back and fail again, and again, are great heroes? We live in upside down times.
She's the best thing we got going for us right now, or at least in the white house that is.
Every once in a while you have to put down the cool aid, at lest for a while.
I guess I haven't been paying close enough attention. Where has she done something positive in foreign relations? Russia? Central America? Pakistan? Iran? N Korea? What am I missing? It has nothing to do with koolaid. She seems to be largely an afterthought. They have John Effing Kerry making policy statements in Afghanistan.
And you got her clawing her way back on stage. Would you rather she wither away and hide?
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