Pakistan: Clinton’s blunt challenge
Hillary Clinton responded with unusual frankness to Pakistanis' complaints about U.S. policy.
This wasn’t quite the “fence-mending tour” that Washington was
expecting, said Paul Richter in the Los Angeles Times. When Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan as secretary of state for the first time last week, she hoped to patch up relations with our reluctant ally in the war on terror. But on her second day, after a car bomb in Peshawar killed more than 100, she lit into her hosts for failing to root out Islamic extremists. “Al Qaida has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she told a group of Pakistani journalists. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to.” In surprisingly blunt exchanges with Pakistanis at a number of stops, Clinton listened to complaints about U.S. policy, but gave as good as she got. When a journalist protested that Pakistan had done plenty for the U.S., Clinton shot back, “We have also given you billions.”
“Brava!” said Jonathan Capehart in WashingtonPost.com. With her frank talk, Clinton “gave voice to long-held yet never publicly uttered frustrations” with our unreliable ally. It’s about time, said Sumit Ganguly in The Wall Street Journal. Since 9/11, the U.S. has given Pakistan $11 billion in aid in hopes that Islamabad would take on the country’s Islamic terrorist groups. But until recently, Pakistan has largely ignored the Islamic militants hiding in the remote regions bordering Afghanistan. Even now, when the Pakistani army is on the offensive in the tribal regions, journalists and Westerners are being kept out, so it’s impossible to know whether militant leaders are being eliminated or just chased from place to place.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
If anyone’s to blame here, said the Peshawar Frontier Post in an editorial, it’s not us. When the Americans invaded Afghanistan in 2001, “they failed to put enough boots on the ground to mop up the fleeing rump of al Qaida and prevent them from escaping.” Since then, our military has killed scores of them. And for that, Clinton calls us “liars, cheats, and frauds.” There’s a pattern developing here, said Michael Crowley in The New Republic Online. When Clinton earlier this year dismissed North Korea’s leadership as “unruly teenagers,” and said in China that human rights really don’t matter, she appeared to be speaking off the cuff. Her comments in Pakistan also seemed unscripted. Clinton the candidate was famous for her “message discipline,” but as secretary of state, she’s proving to be surprisingly undiplomatic.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
George Floyd: Did Black Lives Matter fail?
Feature The momentum for change fades as the Black Lives Matter Plaza is scrubbed clean
-
National debt: Why Congress no longer cares
Feature Rising interest rates, tariffs and Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill could sent the national debt soaring
-
Why are military experts so interested in Ukraine's drone attack?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The Zelenskyy government's massive surprise assault on Russian airfields was a decisive tactical victory — could it also be the start of a new era in autonomous warfare?
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?
Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?
Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?
The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy