The mesmerizing Hillary
November 5, 2009 She came, she charmed and she conquered. Well, not quite. Most were mesmerized but some are still searching for the evil inside the sophisticated exterior and the hidden agenda behind the warm messages of friendship and better understanding that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought with the people during her recent mission to Pakistan.
Her charm could simply not be denied even by her worst enemies. The level of intelligence and energy she exhibited seemed inexhaustible during the whirlwind three-day tour. She remained unruffled in all her discourses arranged at various venues in Islamabad and Lahore. These qualities are indeed god gifted but she has worked hard to carefully cultivate them over the last 20 years - first by helping her husband win the presidency twice over and sharing the lime light with him as the first lady. Later, as a senator and presidential hopeful in her own right and then running her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination under the constant grilling of the media and the public where her every move and word was watched and scrutinised, past and present were subjected to microscopic examination. She narrowly missed a shot at the presidency but shrewdly grabbed the next most powerful assignment in the US Cabinet.
Her scheduled 30 minutes interview by a panel of leading television anchors was skilfully utilised by her to evade a few awkward ones and extend detailed replies to rest of the questions that were predictable, easy to anticipate and for which she was quite well prepared. Furthermore, the students, civil society, women journalists and even the so-called elders fared marginally better, despite not being formally trained in questioning and communication skills. They were well represented and projected themselves as a bunch of moderate, enlightened and progressive nationalists fully aware of the complex environment and must have somewhat diluted the perception of all Pakistanis as extremists and American haters, in the eyes of her entourage. The well turned out and informed ladies in their foreign accents must also have left some impact that all women in Pakistan are not oppressed and maltreated. At the same time, she must have achieved at least a small degree of success in making inroads of realism in the minds of the people of Pakistan.
The sad part of the whole drama has been the inadvertent admission of our universal acceptance of the US as our benefactors. Clinton was positioned at the mantle of a queen in whose court every one was presented with their 'faryad' pleading for compassion, more charity and solutions to our self-created problems. We failed to assert that it was not us but the US that attacked our neighbouring Afghanistan with whom we share a long border, religion and culture. That it was them who asked for our cooperation because without our logistic corridors, intelligence network, political support and our military protecting their one flank, the US could not sustain their war in Afghanistan. We did not have the courage (or mandate) to tell her that we will withdraw our support to the war if the US does not come up with the agreed compensation in full of our war expenses and to tell her that if you do not like our assistance you are free to leave us alone and seek some other ally. Or to say that the people of Pakistan reject the offered paltry civilian aid that is merely a drop in the ocean and that we are quite capable of generating much more than this through their own resources.
Clinton has done her job. She has worked through her strength of public speaking and strong personality to unambiguously state her government's policy without giving anything away and has removed any illusion of our government's capacity to influence it in any way. Our government has also done its job. It has leaned on our public to communicate its sentiment to the Americans that our highly paid lobbyists, ministers and minions were too weak, timid or too obedient to convey to their handlers in Washington.
The US has successfully manoeuvred taking their war into the hearts of our cities and has ingeniously driven us to a stage where our public was left with no alternative except to own it. Notwithstanding the diatribes of Imran Khan or the religious parties, the success of the NATO forces in stabilising Afghanistan and the success of our armed operation against the militants with strongholds in Waziristan have now become interlinked with our own survival and well being. Our unending petty domestic bickering, faltering economy and armed forces overextended on too many fronts have rendered us too ineffective to enforce a meaningful foreign policy and have totally isolated us internationally and from our immediate neighbours. God helps those who help themselves. We are just relying on the US that has transformed itself into the devil to whom we have sold our soul.
The writer is an engineer and entrepreneur
Email: k.a.k786@hotmail.com