Hillary's Failures

The Democrats are starting to rethink their Hillary Clinton option, but she is still their leading candidate for President. The question is, “What will a Clinton foreign policy look like?” The conventional wisdom is that Clinton’s foreign policy will be closer to her husband’s foreign policy, which didn’t dramatically differ from Reagan/Bush years, but what if the conventional wisdom is wrong?

I suspect that Clinton hiding her emails is as much to hide her own views as well as donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation. Obama’s rapprochement with Iran is a radical transformation of our Middle East policy. It is turning our policy upside down while turning America away from our traditional allies, and, just as bad, moving the Democratic Party away from Israel. The result so far is a rise of Iranian hegemony over the region and the strengthening of radical Islam worldwide. Clinton has played a role in this and she can’t escape the responsibility of weakening of America’s presence in Middle East and worldwide since she helped formulate this policy.

Benghazi is a symptom of Clinton’s own failure as Secretary of State. Libya was her baby and it is a complete disaster, and the murder of our Ambassador on 9/11, 2012 is but one result. Muammar Gaddafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction after the death of Saddam Hussein and essentially he put himself on the sideline in the war on terror. This was a Bush administration accomplishment not often mentioned and while many will condemn his war in Iraq, Bush’s war sent a message to terrorist countries that they could be targeted. As FDR once said about a South American dictator, “He may be a SOB but he is our SOB.” Gaddafi was a SOB but after 2004 but he became our SOB. Clinton pushed to remove Gaddafi and what did we gain? Nothing. Instead, we eliminated a leader who was helping us and we now have an unstable Libya that is battleground for a group of radical Islamist runs the country.

As I mentioned in a previous column on Obama, Mrs. Clinton’s policy toward Libya has undermined any effort to control nuclear proliferation in the region, if not worldwide. Gaddafi left the terrorist field when he decided to give up his weapons of mass destruction program. So what would be the incentive of any future nation to give up their weapons of mass destruction on America’s guarantees if they see what we did to Gaddafi? And how is Mrs. Clinton’s reset with Russian working out? In 1994, United States and Russia guaranteed the sovereignty of Ukraine but what is that worth?

Clinton and Obama’s policies towards Egypt were classic of this administration. After helping the Muslim brotherhood gain power at the expense of our ally Hosni Mubarak, we found ourselves once again overthrowing our SOBs for SOBs who proved to be our enemy. One of Hillary Clinton’s advisors is Huma Abedin, whose family members have extensive connections to the Muslim brotherhood. As Andrew McCarthy noted in National Review, how did a woman even get access to classified documents?

Ms. Abedin had an email address with the Clinton’s. What emails don’t we have showing the advice Ms. Abedin gave to Hillary Clinton on Egypt? And did I mention that Ms. Abedin was also allowed to trade in her connection Hillary Clinton to collect consulting gigs while working for the Secretary of State?

So would a Clinton foreign policy be a break from Obama’s or an extension of it? If a Hillary Clinton foreign policy is nothing more than an extension of Obama’s policy, America’s decline will continue. Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy expertise has led to a more unstable world and that is enough of a reason to say no more to HRC’s bid for the Presidency.