Hillary Clinton: A Very Ugly American | Black Agenda Report

Hillary Clinton: A Very Ugly American

04 Nov 2009

🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Having forced Pakistan to launch a civil war to protect American interests, the U.S. dispatches Hillary Clinton to rub salt in Pakistani wounds. The Anti-Diplomat lectures the locals on tax collection and helping the poor while her government daily violates the country's sovereignty. “Americans believe they are the only nation that deserves to have a sense of dignity – and so they relentlessly strip away the dignity of others.”

Hillary Clinton: A Very Ugly American

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The Obama administration drapes itself in the ancient, bloody shrouds of 'just wars' and 'necessary wars.'”

If there ever was a country wholly unfit to play the role of global overseer, it is the United States, a nation utterly unequipped to treat other peoples with even the most elemental respect. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strode the Pakistani stage last week, insulting her hosts at every possible opportunity, the very picture of the Ugly American.

Clinton lectured Pakistani businessmen on the laxity of tax collection in their country, and feigned concern for the plight of the poor. It was as if she were a U.S. politician making the rounds of American television talk shows, rather than a visiting diplomat – a foreigner in someone else’s house.

Clinton all but spat upon the hospitality of the host country, a Muslim nation of 176 million for whom hospitality is a cultural obligation. When confronted on her eagerness to critique Pakistani society, Clinton proclaimed that the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan had to be “a two-way street.” But of course, no such street has ever existed between Americans and Pakistanis – and everyone in Pakistan knows it. No Pakistani is touring the United States, commanding U.S. media coverage while pontificating on American corporate greed, economic inequality, or racial injustice. And no Pakistani has the power to demand that Americans plunge the United States into civil war. Yet that is precisely what the Americans demand from Pakistanis – that they make war on each other, to please the United States.

“Muslim fundamentalist jihad in Afghanistan had three fathers: the United States, Saudi Arabia, and U.S.-backed Pakistani governments.”

The Obama administration drapes itself in the ancient, bloody shrouds of “just wars” and
“necessary wars,” insanely believing it can reinvent history for Pakistanis just as history is routinely revised for the consumption of ultra-gullible Americans. But Pakistanis remember that the U.S. has always supported military regimes that served American global purposes, not the interests of the Pakistani people. They are intimately aware that Muslim fundamentalist jihad in Afghanistan had three fathers: the United States, Saudi Arabia, and U.S.-backed Pakistani governments. And they now see the current Pakistani government and military again bending to America’s will, toy soldiers for foreigners, who hardly protest when U.S. drone aircraft rain down death on Pakistani targets.

Americans believe they are the only nation that deserves to have a sense of dignity – and so they relentlessly strip away the dignity of others. Worse, imperial Americans like Hillary Clinton have not the least sense of loyalty to their dark servants. Even as Pakistani generals ordered their soldiers to kill their own countrymen at United States insistence, Secretary Clinton declared that she believed some Pakistani government officials are aware of where Al Qaeda is hiding, and won't tell.

The British were far better at running empires than the Americans. At least the Brits praised their colonial servants like Gunga Din, who sacrificed their lives for the white man’s sake. Imperial barbarians like Hillary Clinton publicly kick their Gunga Dins, the Pakistani generals, in the backside, and then wonder why the United States is so hated. And that’s one reason why the American empire is doomed.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

More Stories

Palestine Chronicle Staff
Sole Survivor of ‘Paramedics Massacre’ in Rafah Exposes Israeli War Crime
09 Apr 2025
Monther Abed, the sole survivor of the Israeli attack on paramedics in Rafah, reveals the details of the crime in which 15 humanitarian workers were killed.
Alan MacLeod
Betar: the Far-Right Hate Group Helping Trump Deport Israel’s Critics
09 Apr 2025
Betar U.S., a far-right Zionist organization with ties to violent extremism, is quietly shaping Trump administration policy, compiling lists of pro-Palestine activists for deportation while openly…
Jehad Abusalim
"It Is Neither Death, Nor Suicide"
09 Apr 2025
For 76 years, Gaza has been has been the defiant heart of Palestinian resistance. Today, as Israel’s genocidal war lays bare the brutal dead end of Zionism, Gaza’s struggle transcends geography,…
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Ajamu Baraka on What the Hands Off March Left Out
09 Apr 2025
Tens of thousands filled the streets this weekend—marching, chanting, fists raised in defiance. It looked like a movement powerful enough to shake the earth. But beneath the banners and speeches,…
Socialist Workers Movement of the Dominican Republic
The march in Friusa failed and the neo-fascist movement was divided
09 Apr 2025
The Dominican far-right’s violent march on Friusa collapsed in disarray, exposing weakness in the movement as racist mobs failed to overrun a working-class community. However, the threat remains.…