Thursday, January 22, 2009

Secretary Clinton will lead a more disciplined State Dept. than husband did White House; it will elevate humanity in foreign policy decisionmaking

It is quite satisfying to see Hillary Rodham Clinton assume control of the State Department.

She will run a department that needs a strong leader with visible values. She fits that need and more.

For all the ballyhoo she received, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quite flawed. I interviewed her one-on-one in Nashville. And I found her to be the stubbornness and tunnel-vision in the White House concerning the war on terror in Iraq.

She was the primary move behind the war in Iraq, not over weapons of mass destruction but as a historical exercise like the Cold War to bring freedom to another region. And she did not really care how many people died, American or citizens of other countries, including children. Rice was not a good secretary of state.

Secretary Clinton will be just as forceful, but she has shown a greater tendency to see humanity in decisions made. And she, contrary to her husband's administration, wanted intervention in Rwanda to stop the slaughter of 800,000 human beings.

So her ascendancy to Secretary of State is long overdue, not only for this nation but the world so that humanity comes first in America's foreign policy decisionmaking.

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