Speaking in Confidence ... With Confidence
"Great nations need organizing principles, and 'don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle."
"Peace, progress, and prosperity. This worked for a very long time."
"And yeah, we don't want to see the world go to hell in a handbasket, and they don't want to see a resurgence of aggression by anybody."
(former) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
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| Interviewed by The Atlantic, Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized President Obama’s shorthand description of his foreign policy. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
In discussing the current American administration's careful doctrine on addressing global crises, the former Secretary of State is frank and frankly dismissive of her former boss's caution in engaging the United States in the affairs of the international community. Of course, he has his challenges, with one catastrophe on the world stage coming to the fore after another. It has been an impossibly busy and furiously troubling few years, to be certain.
She submitted to an interview with The Atlantic, the results of which were published on its online website. Making such an appearance in the public eye and stating uncategorically what she would and would not do under similar circumstances herself, appears as positive an indication as any that she is still seriously mulling whether she will contest the next American presidential election, trading on her appearance and popularity in the public eye, her experience and her ambition.
She stoutly defended Israel's battle in Gaza against Hamas, arguing against her president's decision to withhold help from rebels in Syria to build a defence capable of confronting the onslaughts against his own civilian population by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She had disagreed with Barack Obama's opinion that supplying the rebels with arms would not have stopped al-Qaeda's incursion across Syria and within Iraq today.
Failure of the administration to act on her recommendations as secretary of state, which also happened to jibe with the opinion of then-defence secretary Leon Panetta led, in her opinion, to the current situation: "the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled", she explained. Americans, she said, want to take care of themselves in a manner rewarding to those who work hard and respect the rules. But they also want to be involved in the greater world community.
Despite her criticism of the man she once answered to as secretary of state, she expressed respect for President Obama's intelligence, sympathizing with the difficult decisions he must grapple with daily, from the Oval Office. As an example, she pointed out that while on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, she was aware that the president had to attend to issues respecting Iraq, Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, terrorism and Ebola in Africa.
"He's thoughtful, he's incredibly smart, and able to analyze a lot of different factors that are all moving at the same time. I think he is cautious because he knows what he inherited, both the two wars and the economic front, and he has expended a lot of capital and energy trying to pull us out of the hole we're in", she explained. It wouldn't do much for her judgement, after all, to completely malign someone she once agreed to work with.
That said, they seem no longer to be personally involved, even as a gesture that they once worked in close tandem for their common cause. While Mrs. Clinton will happen to be at Martha's Vineyard for a book-signing at a local book shop Mr. Obama is known to visit often, he is not expected to attend that book signing, nor did Hillary Clinton plan to go out of her way to meet with her old adversary-colleague while in town.
Labels: Intercession, United States, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, August 13, 2014
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