Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

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


  • The Real Peace Candidate for 2020 Isn’t Tulsi Gabbard, It’s Howie Hawkins
    Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    Tulsi Gabbard Is A Sheepdog, Greens Howie Hawkins Is 2020's Only Real Peace Candidate
    04 Apr 2019
    Respectfully, my comrade and friend Danny H
  • ms cortez goes to washington
    Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
    Ms. Cortez Goes to Washington
    04 Apr 2019
    “Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” —Lucy Parsons
  • Black Alliance for Peace Demands Black Caucus Hold Hearings on US Militarization of Africa
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Black Alliance for Peace Demands Black Caucus Hold Hearings on US Militarization of Africa
    03 Apr 2019
    As part of its “US Out of Africa” campaign, BAP collected thousands of signatures demanding Black lawmakers fulfill their responsibilities to Africa and peace.
  • Дэвид Свонсон
    Putin Claims to Have Sabotaged Mueller Report
    03 Apr 2019
    Trump could shoot Putin in the middle of Red Square and would still be seen as a Russian asset by true believers in CIA propaganda.
  • Freedom Rider: Remembering April 4th
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Remembering April 4th
    03 Apr 2019
    Dr King understood that drawing a line in the sand against imperialism was necessary to bring about the radical changes he wanted to see in the United States.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us