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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Kim Ghattas – The Secretary (Times Books)

The publicity blurbs for this book are laced with terms like: eye-opening, revealing, poignant, gripping, terrific, vivid, colorful, candid, fast-paced and substantive. Touting unprecedented access to a sitting Secretary of State, The Secretary: A Journey With Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power from BBC, State Department radio and TV correspondent Kim Ghattus promised an intimate portrait of American foreign policy from the top down.

What it delivers is something altogether different. The Secretary reads like two storylines under one cover; the first a jaundiced, “journalist” almost awestruck tale of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who approaches things from the point of view that the United States is almost irreparably damaged on the world stage and only Obama and Clinton can fix it. While that may be Ms. Ghattus’ point of view, I think the record of the first term speaks volumes about the inept nature of the Obama foreign policy; makes me long for the day of George W. Bush’s “strategery.”

Second the book spirals away from its proclaimed subject and becomes a screed for the authors world view more than Obama/Clinton doctrine.

It does take long for the fawning to get rolling with the line early on; “Although he had belittled her foreign policy experience during the campaign, Obama knew that only Clinton came with the built-in international stature and credibility that allowed her to instantly board a plane and stand in for him while he fixed the economy at home.” It begs the questions; how’s that working out for you? With the economy continuing to stagnate into the second term. It’s also laughable on its face that a partial term Senator and community organizer could be critical of the foreign policy stance of a one-term Senator, whose foreign policy experience amounted to hosting teas for foreign dignitary’s wives while First Lady.

Ghattas’ liberal plumage is never more on full display than when she gives all of one paragraph of coverage to the 9/11/12 Benghazi, Libya assassination of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and as she puts it “three other Americans.” She writes off the fallout from the attack as “partisan criticism” claiming that “Clinton managed to dodge most of the acrimonious attacks.” Only in the twisted mind of a liberal could an epic foreign policy failure and the cover up that followed be couched as partisan! And for the record the three Americans that lost their lives were: Sean Smith, an information management officer, and former U.S. Navy SEALs; Tyrone S. Woods, a senior security specialist and Glen Doherty, a security contactor and former SEAL Sniper.

At this point, only history will bring clarity to the level of foreign policy incompetence of Obama and Clinton and the devastating effect it will have around the globe. Certainly Ms. Gahttas has done nothing to paint a clear picture.

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