With the press slathering over the likely appointment of Hillary Clinton to be Barack Obama’s secretary of state, it’s important to not only highlight the deficiencies of Clinton’s record but also to reflect on the eight years her ex-boyfriend (and current husband) spent at the helm of American foreign policy.
Bill Clinton, according to mainstream analysis, had a relatively successful presidency in the realm of foreign relations. His Middle East legacy was a stunning success compared to the travesty of the most recent eight years, but for those of you who have read something in the last decade besides Bill Kristol’s weekly column in The New York Times, that’s not exactly a compliment worthy of a plaque in the presidential trophy room.
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Perhaps the biggest foreign policy embarrassment of the
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Nevertheless, it’s unfortunate that Hillary Clinton is being considered the top candidate to represent that type of level-headed foreign policy in the Obama administration. All the hands Hillary has shaken, all the books she’s read, all the contacts she’s made — they’re all overshadowed by the egregious foreign policy decisions she made during her time in the U.S. Senate.
Her record in public office has at best been deferential to the neo-conservative agenda of “peace through barbarism.” First, she signed off on the authorization to use force against
In all fairness, Clinton was likely — no, definitely — tacking to the right on foreign policy for political reasons, hoping to position herself as a hawk when campaigning against whatever war-monger the GOP would put up in the general election. Remember, despite John McCain’s belief in an imaginary Iraq-Afghanistan border, the senator from Arizona was the only Republican candidate whose positions on international relations did not forecast World War III or, in the case of Mike Huckabee, the third Crusade. Therefore it may have been politically intuitive for Clinton, who at one point assumed victory in the primaries, to meet the GOP’s thirst for Arab blood half way.
However,
Jack Craver ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history.