Clinton "proud" of diplomatic accomplishments
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
That is the headline at the AP and I don't think they are using the quotation marks ironically . Hillary Clinton's campaign opener/nest egg builder "Hard Choices" is coming out soon and her team has begun strategic leaking operations. This is necessary as she has a lot of issues to deal with and a problem finding an answer to the question that keeps coming up "What were your accomplishments as Secretary of State?" and the follow on "Why on Earth are you proud of them?". It is not that she lacks accomplishments, it's just that they are not positive ones.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton writes in her new book that she wishes she could have made different, unspecified decisions as President Barack Obama's secretary of state
Well you can't hold that against her. Obama's record and approval rating on foreign affairs are both bad and embarrassing. She could pick pretty much any issue, specified or un, and wish she could have made a different decision. About the only thing they both can hang their hats on is ventilating bin Laden. And they have certainly worked that well beyond any decent amount of decorum or humility. It leads off her greatest hits in recent speaking engagements:
Clinton has pointed to the bin Laden raid and other highlights of her time at State, describing her work with Obama to address Iran's nuclear ambitions, set the groundwork for Middle East peace and help Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. She has called the Benghazi attack her biggest regret as secretary of state.
Skipping past her minimal role in returning bin Laden to room temperature, let's take on the rest of those proud accomplishments.
Addressing Iran's nuclear ambitions- First they still have the ambition to be a nuclear power. Second the Obama administration has done nothing to stop or even slow down their progress toward building a nuclear weapon. They sent presents, cards, made videos and sipped countless cups of mint tea while nibbling petit fours. But as far as any substantive progress toward stopping a dangerous and deranged regime from addressing its nuclear ambitions, not a bloody thing.
Setting the groundwork for Middle East peace- Do I even need to discuss this one? The Obama team has managed to sink relations with the Israelis without even gaining any good will from the Palestinians. Sandra Bullock did more for "....and World Peace" in Miss Congeniality.
Chinese Dissident Chen Guangcheng- They did manage to get him out of the country and then threw him into the Cultural Revolution of American Academia. That has been messy and he got booted from New York University and now hangs out at a fringe conservative think tank, A success, but pretty limited.
And those are the accomplishments she picked. Pretty weak or even negative to this observer, certainly not much to be proud of or, dare I say, to run on. Then you have an entire cornucopia of catastrophes starting with the one that at this point makes a damn big difference.
Benghazi- She failed to approve multiple requests for security. She failed to support them (or get Obama to) when they were under attack. She lied about the causes of the planned al Qaeda attack when in possession of plenty of eyewitness and expert information saying it was just that. She told those lies to the families of the dead.
Russia- Vlad the Impaler saw weakness and started his reset of the Soviet empire. Now that he is annexing the Ukraine, she has managed to compare him to Hitler. Not too impressive when your best shot is a reductio ad hitlerum.
China- Having completed their debt round acquiring most of the United States, they decided to turn the South and East China Seas into...well, the South and East CHINA Seas. Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and South Korea be damned.
Boko Haram- How did that whole "Don't call those terrorists, terrorists or they might get mad" thing work out? No need to answer.
The bottom line is that there are few, if any, positive accomplishments to speak of and the list of dismal failures is long and distinguished, These topics can and should come up if she decides she wants to be Commander in Chief.