Clinton to Pakistan: Get real

30 October 2009 |permalink | email article

Pushed around for two days about U.S. influence on Pakistan’s military, Hillary Clinton finally had enough and did every American a favor in a very undiplomatic response while meeting with newspaper editors about al Qaeda.

Asked why other counties can’t be involved in fighting terrorism – not just in Pakistan – the Secretary of State minced no words: “Al-Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002. I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to. Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”

Suggesting that al Qaeda has launched attacks on Indonesia, Philippines and many other countries, she said the world has an interest in seeing the capture and killing of people who are he masterminds of this terrorist syndicate.  Osama bin Laden was not mentioned, but she added, “As far as we know, they are in Pakistan.” The Bush administration never had the nerve to address the festering issue so publicly. Clinton’s toughness should be welcomed by the White House.

Obama’s Dover trip

As ABC News put it yesterday “the nation woke up to powerful and emotional images – images the public never saw under President Bush. The president greeted returning American caskets that once would have been shielded from view, and may tell us more about his mindset on Afghanistan than any of the endless series of meetings he’s convened in the White House.”

“Standing in the pre-dawn darkness, President Obama saw the real cost of war in Afghanistan: the Americans who return in flag-covered cases while much of the nation sleeps in peace,” the AP reported.

Now a war president, Obama must please many constituencies, notably a public far from convinced over and over again that Afghanistan is not in the long run another Vietnam. This trip conveyed the gravity of a decision he is now expected to make before he departs for Asia on November 11.

The AP has handicapped the decision as “McChrystal Light,” a narrowed military mission scaling back the troop numbers the general wants to achieve his ambitious objectives.

Quotable

“You know what’s worse than being sick and not having health insurance? Having to sit through the (Joe) Lieberman filibuster that kept you from it.” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, criticizing Lieberman for joining the Republicans if they filibuster the public option.

216