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I wholeheartedly agree with the criticism in the article by Robert Dreyfuss on June 4, 2012.
Robert Dreyfuss, a Nation contributing editor, is an investigative journalist in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in politics and national security. He is the author of Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam and is a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone, The American Prospect, and Mother Jones.
Perhaps not a Neocon, Hillary Clinton on the wrong side of diplomatic succes
Here’s the book on Hillary: hawkish and pro-military, skilled at using human rights as a cudgel against regimes she doesn’t like while glossing over human rights abuses by allies, a liberal interventionist who’s on the wrong side of the administration’s internal debates on Afghanistan, China, Libya, and Syria. Let’s hope that Clinton’s next war isn’t Syria, where the United States is coordinating weapons delivery to rebels, including Islamist militants.
Former Cheney Spokesperson hired by Hillary Clinton
Though she isn’t a neocon – if “neocon” means someone addicted to the unilateral use of hard power to impose the American will overseas, regardless of the views of America’s allies, the United Nations, and international law – Clinton isn’t averse to hiring one as her spokesperson. That would be Victoria Nuland, a polyglot diplomat who previously served most prominently as Vice President Dick Cheney’s national security adviser from 2003 to 2005, during the peak moment of neoconservative influence in the administration of George W. Bush, before becoming the U.S. ambassador to NATO. She was appointed as Clinton’s spokesperson in 2011.
Clinton’s resolute hawkishness on Afghanistan
On Afghanistan, thanks to Bob Woodward’s Obama’s Wars and other reported accounts, it’s widely known that Clinton twice pushed Obama to escalate that bungled adventure. In March 2009, when Obama ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, Clinton opposed Vice President Joe Biden and other doves who argued, presciently, that more troops wouldn’t solve the problem. The exact same alignment in late 2009 had Clinton siding with the generals once again in pressing Obama to add 30,000 more U.S. forces, once again overriding Biden’s objections. Perhaps influencing Clinton’s resolute hawkishness on Afghanistan is her self-styled role as advocate for Afghanistan’s women. Again and again, her advocacy for the women of that war-scarred nation has seemingly steeled her against the necessary and inevitable reconciliation with the Taliban-led insurgency.
Biography: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remember when Clinton called Obama “irresponsible and frankly naive” on foreign policy?
Israeli Hawk Dennis Ross hired by Clinton for Palestinian Peace negotiations
Little remembered now, three years ago Clinton also shocked some supporters of Barack Obama by hiring Dennis Ross, a neocon-linked official from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy– itself founded in the 1980s by a former research director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – for in a vaguely defined role as special adviser on something called “the Gulf and Southwest Asia,” meaning Israel and Iran. (Ross later moved to the White House, where he led a confrontational phalanx of Obama advisers on the tangled issue of Iran’s nuclear program.)
With Ross handling Iran, Clinton then managed to slough off the other two biggest foreign policy issues to so-called special envoys: Richard Holbrooke on Afghanistan and Pakistan and George Mitchell on the Middle East. But her hawkish views on issues such as Afghanistan and Libya, expressed frequently inside the White House, often pushed Obama to the right. [Diary – Dennis Ross Back In Town]
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
The USIP involvement in US Foreign Policy, thank you Stephan J. Hadley.
Complementarity or Cooperation between State, USAID and the NGO Community
After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced the QDDR as a major step in elevating development alongside diplomacy as a key pillar of American foreign policy, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) welcomed the QDDR as the beginning of a better coordinated and more effective approach to global development.
USIP was among the organizations that contributed ideas to the development of the QDDR, particularly in the areas of stabilization and conflict prevention. Discussion of the QDDR and its goals will enhance the effectiveness of both NGOs and the U.S. Government in global development and conflict prevention efforts, particularly in building local capacity and promoting innovation.
Tara Sonenshine Sworn In as Undersecretary of State
Former USIP Executive Vice President Tara Sonenshine was formally sworn in as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on April 24. Secretary Clinton administered the oath to Sonenshine, who will serve as the State Department’s senior public diplomacy official. In her remarks, Sonenshine spoke of her career in journalism and government, and paid tribute to her mentors, including USIP President Richard Solomon. Regarding her new role, she stated, “If we enlist public diplomacy effectively, we can enlist the problem solvers and leaders of tomorrow.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
