hillary rodham clinton

On a blogger conference call this afternoon, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) announced he can’t support a potential addition of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “We ought not to add troops in Afghanistan,” Specter said, adding that he questioned “even staying” in Afghanistan unless the administration demonstrates that continuing the war is “indispensable to our fight against [...]

If there were a healthy or coherent relationship between civilian and military efforts in war zones or weak states or post-conflict environments, there wouldn’t be any need for, say, Stuart Bowen to propose a new U.S. Office of Contingency Operations. Instead there’s ad-hoc and personality-driven relationships and operational incoherence. This, for instance, is what Secretary [...]

It was once the case that the American and Afghan Presidents shared a certain bond. It was a cordial relationship, even warm, begun by contingency and entrenched by videoconference. But the two men’s ties did not translate into similarly deep U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, and so governance, prosperity and security all deteriorated, and Afghans and Americans died [...]

It’s still not a definitive rejection of the deal reached in Vienna to reprocess Iran’s uranium abroad into a matter unsuitable for a nuclear weapon, but it’s not nothing, either:
Iran’s foreign minister said in remarks reported Wednesday that he opposes sending the country’s enriched uranium abroad under a tentative deal negotiated with the United States [...]

Laura Rozen reports a few post-Asia trip scheduling conflicts:
Hillary Clinton is hosting an all-day retreat for her senior staff Friday at Blair House. Deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries are due to attend. On the agenda: briefings on policy & budget, an urgent challenges panel on Iran, the Middle East, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and North Korea; around the world priorities, [...]

Contrary to nearly a year of stern insistence from the Obama administration that Israel refrain from all growth in occupied Palestinian territory — an insistence that frayed with a recent comment by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the administration has tried to walk back — Israel has announced the construction of 900 new [...]

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that this great New York Times story about President Obama’s Pakistan decision-making isn’t worthwhile, but there’s a quote buried in it that deserves a lot of elaboration:
During Mr. Obama’s Situation Room briefings on his alternatives, those advocating a minimal commitment of new troops in Afghanistan have argued that the [...]

Check out this New York Times piece about the Afghanistan debate’s latest shifts in the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are now on board with a 30,000-troop increase*, as is Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president is said to be [...]

It’s not really a statement of support for nominee Rajiv Shah, who’s already got strong and eager support from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. But here’s what the chairman and ranking member of the committee that he’ll appear before for his confirmation hearing have to say:
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and [...]

Just released from the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton:
Dr. Raj Shah is a leader in the development community, an innovative and results-oriented manager, and someone who understands the importance of providing people around the world with the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty and chart their own destinies. By nominating Raj [...]