Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just returned from her first trip abroad. She said she chose to visit Asia because of its rising importance to the United States. China, after all, buys U.S. Treasury bonds. President Obama would have a hard time paying the government's bills without those purchases.
Mrs. Clinton frequently made the pitch that the bonds were safe, and that Asia needs a healthy American economy, making her, as one commentator said, the nation's leading "merchant of debt." But what she did not say was important, too.
She did not complain openly about China's human rights abuses, even though the State Department issued its annual human rights assessment just after she returned from Asia. The department's statement said, "The government of China's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas."
Mrs. Clinton must have known what was in the report before she went to Asia, but she remained mum in public, although the State Department said she raised the issue in private meetings with Chinese leaders.
As she explained to reporters on the eve of her visit to China, taking up human rights abuses like the recent jailing of Liu Xiaobo, organizer of a manifesto favoring democratic change known as Charter 08, "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis."
China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi purred that China's relations with the new U.S. government were "off to a good start."
But as Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch wrote in the magazine Foreign Policy, a "long-standing" theme of U.S. foreign policy has been "support for the brave individuals who are working within China to improve their country's rights environment." She noted that the Chinese government suppressed prominent government critics to keep them silent during Mrs. Clinton's visit. It will be a blow to the morale of democracy activists in China, she wrote, to hear "that the United States now considers them an impediment to progress on other issues."
That is sad — and unnecessary. China will continue to finance U.S. debt as it has in the past even though the United States speaks up for human rights, so long as U.S. Treasury bonds remain good investments. And no longer.
"I'm very proud that President Obama has made a total U-turn away from the policies of the last eight years," Mrs. Clinton told an audience at Ewha University in South Korea.
If that means keeping a closed mouth on human rights abuses, she and the president have regrettably chosen the wrong direction (emphasis mine).
Here's the thing - Secretary Clinton serves at the pleasure of the president She has to carry out HIS policies, NOT HERS. For the Editors to not even MENTION that this was Obama's policy until the very end, and vaguely at that, is disingenuous at best. Obama is responsible for putting human rights on the back burner, which is why a number of human rights groups were upset with him. How sad that they continue to participate in Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and are unwilling to put the blame where it should lie: squarely on Obama's shoulders. This is HIS policy, not hers. It is far past time for the media to actually do their job, and stop their coddling of him. His policy, his responsibility. Deal with it.
Along those lines of Obama backtracking on his campaign promises, just in case anyone was under the delusion that his MAJOR flip to support FISA, and not filibuster it, was a fluke (Hahahahaha - sorry - I couldn't help but laugh at the thought that someone could actually think that, but he - we've seen stranger things this past election season), check out this little story by the AP (they don't like it when others run their stories). I'll give you a hint Here is the first paragraph in the story:
The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security should stop a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program.
Oh, yeah, baby - Obama WANTED that ability, despite its being Un-Constitutional! He wanted all the same power, and more (remember Robert Byrd's recent letter about Obama's power-grab), that Bush had. It is time for his minions to get past their "disappointment" (as one of my family members referred to it) that he voted for it, and accept that he SUPPORTS having this ability for himself. Pull your heads out of the sand, and wrap your minds around it already. Obama is not the man you hoped he was. Deal with it.
Oh, and one more little backtrack while I am at it: Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan. Seems it is not exactly what people thought it was going to be. Seems it will take a lot longer, and leave a lot more troops in than hoped. Heck, even some of the Democrats in Congress are upset about it, according to THIS article. No immediate withdrawal, and leaving at least 50,000 troops in country. Oh, and sending a whole bunch more folks to Afghanistan. Since people seem to have such short memories, bear in mind that the Soviet Union was in Afghanistan for NINE years - NINE. And the Soviet Union ended up having to leave, never accomplishing their objective. Why? Because Afghanistan is a DIFFICULT country in which to wage a war. There are mountains, and caves, and all kinds of little hidey holes there, with some mighty strong factions there.
Now, I will be the first to say that post 9/11, I felt that if we were going to wage war against those responsible, Afghanistan was the place to be since that was where bin Laden was. But it is foolish to gloss over RECENT history and not understand how difficult this situation was going to be. It needed more troops to be sure, and it could have done with some oversight from the Senate.
Oh, wait - the person responsible for holding those subcommittee meetings couldn't be bothered to actually HOLD any meetings. Yes, Barack Obama was that person. For him to now claim that not enough has been done in Afghanistan would be LAUGHABLE if not so insulting. HE chose not to do his duty as a US Senator, and is now acting like this is his first opportunity EVER to actually do something about it. Pathetic.
Sheesh. It seems Obama is knocking off one campaign promise after another. I wonder which one will be next?
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