Experimental Blog # 163

Quotations and comments on "The Secretary" - A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power by Kim Ghattas

"Even today, while America is deeply in debt again, exhausted by two wars, its influence challenged by rivals big and small, millions of people around the world still believe that the United States can snap its fingers to make things happen, for good or bad .."
"As ever, interpretation of any statement depended on your political leanings: you were either looking for a sign that help was on its way or looking for a clue about America's nefarious designs."

"Governments everywhere that instinctively and narrowly pursued their national interest somehow expected the United States to suspend the pursuit of its own interests to please them. The Arabs wanted the United States to ditch the Israelis; the Israelis wanted the United States to bomb Iran; the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted Obama to wait with him for the Shiite messiah; Pakistan wanted to be given Afganistan on a gold platter; India wanted the United States to say it could have Kashmir; Japan wanted Washington to make Beijing go away."

Was there a murder of an American special representative, or envoy, for Afganistan and Pakistan? Kim Ghattas says or asks no such thing. She only writes that he "died suddenly" and, "Not everybody had agreed with Holbrooke, and there was much infighting within the administration about him, but he kept people's minds focused on the issue."

Kim Ghattas writes extensively about the very embarrassing revelations and exposures in 2010 by WikiLeaks; but since none of them were "top secret", they apparently did not cause very serious or lasting damage.
Kim Ghattas was a very close witness and reporter of the Arab uprisings that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and seemed to move infectiously on to Egypt and Libya and Syria.
Of course, the author also writes about many other subjects from her 300,000 mile journey with the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In the acknowledgements section at the end of her book Kim Ghattas writes, "Living through war is nothing to be thankful for but it did push me to always seek meaning in life." And, "my parents taught me never to give up and to never blame anyone or anything else for what's going wrong in my life."