My View by
Jim Yacavone
(October 6, 2016)
Like
Chatty Cathy dolls stuck in an endless loop, Hillary Clinton supporters constanttly
assert that she has more “experience” than Trump. They must mean she’s been in
government longer because she certainly does not have a record of competence or
achievement.
In
her eight years as a senator she had only four bills that became law: the Kate
Mullany National Historic Site Act, two bills naming post offices, and a bill
designating part of U.S. Route 20 as the “Timothy J. Russert Highway.” Wow,
what a record of legislative accomplishment.
Her
tenure as Secretary of State was a disaster for our foreign policy. I invite Hillary
supporters to tell me of one meaningful, lasting accomplishment she achieved
while Secretary of State. Tough to do, isn’t it? That’s because there are none.
The truth is that her time at State is littered with failures.
We
start with the “reset” of relations with Russia. Remember when she handed the
Russian foreign minister a red reset button in order to start a new chapter in
U.S.-Russian relations? Talk about an amateurish attempt at diplomacy. It was a
gimmick you’d expect at a sophomore sorority party, not on the world stage of
international relations. The only thing that tops it for being even more bush
league was when John Kerry brought James Tayler to France to sing “You’ve Got a
Friend” after Obama dissed Western leaders by not attending a memorial march
after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
And
how did the Russian reset go? Horribly. Our relations with Russia are almost to
a Cold War level. Putin thumbs his nose at the U.S. with impunity. He has invaded
the Ukraine and intervened in the Syrian civil war in support the Assad regime.
Russia now has a toe hold of influence in the Middle East.
Then
there is our relationship with China. Chin is now building military bases and
projecting power into the South China Sea to the great alarm of our Pacific
allies.
But
it is in the Middle East that Clinton did the most damage as Secretary of
State. She supported Obama’s policy of pulling troops from Iraq and Afghanistan
which destabilized both countries and allowed ISIS and the Taliban to flourish.
She was Obama’s principle foreign policy advisor during the Arab Spring of 2011,
and we’re desperately trying to clean up the mess in Syria and Libya. She was
an architect of Obama’s policies towards Iran—policies which served to
strengthen Iran’s power in the region and its ability to support Islamic
terrorism throughout the world. As a result, the Arab Gulf States don’t trust
us, and our relations Israel are strained.
Even
Hillary is hard pressed to name an accomplishment as Secretary of State. When
asked in 2014 she responded: “My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well,
I'm glad you asked! My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride,
mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know. The remnants of
prior situations and mind-sets that were too narrowly focused in a manner
whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture, and we didn't do that, and
I'm proud of that. Very proud. I would say that's a major accomplishment.”
What?
Shades of Professor Irwin Corey. Let me know when you figure that one out.
The
truth of the matter is that Hillary may have been in government for a long time
but she hasn’t demonstrated she can actually accomplish anything other than
compromise state secrets, peddle influence for personal enrichment and tell lies.
That’s
my view. What’s yours?
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