Hillary Clinton was sworn in as the 67th Secretary of State on January 21st. The only thing more important to the State Department than that number, 67, is the number 66. Because number 67 is going to be spending the next 4-8 years cleaning up her predecessor's mess.
When NBC News' Andrea Mitchell first broke the Hillary Clinton story, Chris Matthews said that next to President of the United States, Secretary of State is likely to be the greatest job of our time. The reason is, one of Secy. Clinton's greatest challenge will be dealing with half a world that hates this country right now, two wars (although she won't have much involvement in the military affairs) and nuclear threats from at least half a dozen countries.
Remember when Secy. Clinton showed up to work on January 22nd? The entire department was screaming as if it were a Hillary campaign rally. Jon Stewart said, "Hillary Clinton is liberating the State Department!" That warm welcome of change was largely symbolic of the state of disrepair the department is in right now thanks to Pres. Bush and Condie Rice.
First of all, the department itself was mismanaged. When a man named Robert Zoellick left the post of U.S. Trade Representative to become Deputy Secy. of State, Condie Rice didn't bother filling the position (nothing to do with the economic crisis I'm sure). Moreover, the department is so under funded that even some other secretaries have said that they would be willing to give up funding to help fund the deteriorating State Dept. Of course, given the complete and utter lack of diplomacy we've had for eight years, it's not surprise that the department is such a mess.
Clinton's greatest challenge will be restoring this nation's standing in the world. Dick Cheney recently said that the Bush administration's goal was not to have America be loved but respected. First of all, neither happened, and second of all, both can happen at once. Clinton will have to convince people around the world that after a much hated war in Iraq and allegations of torture, America is back and ready to lead the world again. If she can do that, it will do wonders for our national security since most of our problems stem from our shortcomings in foreign policy and lack of diplomacy.
For eight long years, President Bush gave an uncalled for amount of support to Israel and villainized Palestine not even calling Israel out on its civilian killings recently. Secretary Clinton needs to take a much more unbiased stand towards this situation. The problem is, of course, that Florida has been the key to winning elections in America for quite some time now and older Jews and Cubans make up much of its electorate. That's why politicians with Presidential aspirations won't denounce Israel or suggest we shouldn't grant asylum to Cuban refugees (I think we should do the latter, but at any rate). Nonetheless, I believe the Secretary will be able to ignore the number 2016 and be unbiased in her work in that area brokering a deal that Rice was unwilling to be any part of.
Next stop, India and Pakistan. Here's a touchy situation...isn't there a reason we need Pakistan to like us...oh right we're at war with their neighbor and half of our enemy is in their country. Pakistan just needs to cooperate with India should a tragedy like Mumbai ever happen again. If they do, we can continue our relations with them and hopefully bring some Al Qaeda scum from the mountains of Pakistan to the courts of the United States.
Speaking of Pakistan...ever heard of AQ Khan? He's the guy that's been under house arrest in Pakistan for years now for admitting he sold Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. In America, that's got a name...starts with a t...treason! But apparently in Pakistan, it's grounds to put you under house arrest in a mansion for a slap-in-the-wrist amount of time. The reason for our nuclear problems now is a free man.
And to the nuclear crisis we have...that's one of the greatest threats to this country and it's probably Clinton's number one inherited problem.
So from Palestine to Pakistan and Iraq to Iran, Clinton's got her job cut out for her. But after her display in the Senate that shocked almost every Senator (except the two that voted not to confirm her), what was described as an incredible depth of knowledge about the world, will help. But at any rate, I still have to say...you sure you want this job, Hillary?
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