“We believe strongly that supporting women and girls is essential to building democracy and security.” - Hillary Clinton - Clinton: U.S. will keep helping Afghan women

The fatigue in this country over Afghanistan runs wide and deep and for good reasons.

News that NATO has inadvertently killed Pres. Karzai’s cousin will undoubtedly cause further uproar inside the country where civilian deaths continue to climb.

On Sunday an Obama administration official, one obviously not as interested in human rights as women’s rights, revealed one side of the boys’ club mentality inside the White House fish bowl, through a Washington Post story that got absolutely no traction whatsoever, except around here.  This “senior official” saying the U.S. couldn’t get caught continuing to help women, which was reduced to a  ’special interest and pet project… pet rocks in our rucksack’ by the official.

Sect. Clinton responded, while not taking on the new developments in two USAID agencies, which has removed gender-equity provisions in U.S. Agency for International Development programs.

From Washington Post:

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Clinton told a House panel that the U.S. commitment to Afghan women remains undiminished and that the United States is “currently providing more support than at any time in our government’s history” for education, health-care and political empowerment programs.

[…] Clinton spoke in response to a question from Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) about a Washington Post article on Sunday that described how specific requirements aimed at assisting women were stripped from two USAID programs in Afghanistan, one focused on land reform and the other on municipal governance. The article also quoted a senior U.S. government official as saying that “gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities.”

“This is, quite frankly, unacceptable,” Lowey said. “Any progress we’ve made in Afghanistan with regard to women’s rights will be quickly rolled back by the [Afghan] government and others if we do not continue to emphasize the importance of gender equality.”

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Clinton’s fight to continue helping women and girls is a central tenet of her belief in diplomacy’s range, but also that it must be part of the foundation of U.S. foreign policy.  On this no one is more committed.

Considering the comment leaked from a “senior official” of the Administration, as well as USAID’s move, there are others with power inside the Obama circle who do not share this belief in a war that’s dragging on and will take us 10 more years out.

It’s also not certain that if the American people were given the choice they’d agree with Clinton. 

How long this policy will last if Sect. Clinton decides to leave State, which she has hinted will happen before Obama’s potential second term, is an issue as well.

(Source: taylormarsh.com)

Sexism, shmexism, this is as wrong as it is unethical. I don’t care what religion is involved.

Via Jezebel, Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic newspaper, Der Tzitung, photoshopped Sec. Hillary Clinton out of their cover story photo, as well as Audrey Tomason, who is identified in the photo on Flickr as Pres. Obama’s Director for Counterterrorism.

Newsweek reporter Daniel Stone wrote about Ms. Tomason in the Daily Beast. It’s not like she wondered in from the ladies room to find herself in the middle of all hell breaking loose.

When The Daily Beast asked the White House press office about Tomason, an official said she worked with the National Security Council, a White House agency closely involved with the intelligence that led to bin Laden. The official intimated that the White House generally doesn’t discuss personnel at any of the government’s covert or intelligence agencies. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the NSC, confirmed she worked with the agency. When asked why she had never been identified or mentioned before, Vietor responded “Well, we’ve never killed bin Laden before.”

In the 21st century, this is unacceptable. Sec. Clinton and Ms. Tomason are women appointed to the Executive Branch by the president himself, with Clinton confirmed by the United States Senate.

The people who made the decision to rewrite U.S. history, including the publisher of Der Tzitung, have shown themselves to be part of the problem in this world. Across the globe women are treated like second class citizens in places, but particularly in the Middle East.

This goes well beyond sexism.

Der Tzitung has rewritten history to purposely misrepresent the role of women in Pres. Obama’s administration to suit their religious extremist point of view. No one gets to do that without being held to account.

We all know how Der Tzitung will handle the situation of bin Laden’s wives, who were important witnesses to history, including possibly knowing something about who in Pakistan was aiding him, because it’s clear someone was.

As one American official said after Mr. Donilon spoke Sunday: “Our guess is that the wives knew just who was keeping Bin Laden alive for all these years.” He added later, “It’s the Khan case all over again.” – U.S. Raises Pressure on Pakistan in Raid’s Wake

For the record, though I’ve posted this photo before, and because Sec. Clinton and Director Tomason are critical members of Obama’s White House team who helped get the worlds most wanted terrorism, or as in Sec. Clinton’s case, has to attempt to keep the lid on diplomatic engagement with Pakistan, never an easy feat, particularly now as more and more information reveals significant points of concern.

source: Taylor Marsh

“I think after 20 years — and it will be 20 years — of being on the high wire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would be probably a good idea to just find out how tired I am.” – Secy. Hillary Clinton

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 2012. State Department photo/ Public Domain

I tweeted about this likelihood on Tuesday. She’ll no doubt work up until the very last second on her very last day, for which Pres. Obama is no doubt grateful, as are we all.

We can only imagine that it’s “a little odd for me to be totally out of an election season,” as she also admits she “didn’t watch any of those debates.”

After she leaves State, Hillary Clinton will be able to rest, write, and then assess other options. This includes, come 2014, coming to grips on whether she’s ready to walk away from another run for the White House and possibly being the first female president of the United States.

There will be a different breed bidding for the Democratic presidential spot in 2016. However, no one in politics would be more prepared. She would, however, have to defend her continued militaristic foundation, whether it’s Libya or her continued belief in the war in Afghanistan. Her close relationship to the Pentagon and the U.S. defense industry would also be at issue. Mrs. Clinton’s closeness to Israel’s leaders and the trust built between them, would, however, hold great possibilities. Her involvement during the Libya bombing proved unparalleled, as she worked to convince Arab leaders to come on board. It would be a serious campaign, not a walk in the park, at least with progressive primary voters, though there would also be great emotions on the left to making a Democratic female a seminal part of American history.

Mrs. Clinton has also said time and again she will not run for president again.

TM NOTE: An international women’s foundation, raising money from all sides, like her husband’s CGI, and impacting women’s lives in countries around the world, is one very good bet, which I’d put money on myself.

Taylor Marsh is the author of The Hillary Effect, which traces the history of the near twenty years of press coverage and political events that followed Hillary Clinton into the 2008 presidential race and helped make her candidacy as impossible as it was part of her destiny.