Hillary's Unprecedented Experience on the World Stage

Anyone who doubts Hillary Clinton's impact on the world stage might want to check with the top political leaders in Northern Ireland, who cite her work to end sectarian violence there and help secure a lasting peace.

Anyone who doubts Hillary Clinton's international experience might consult with democracy activists in the Slovak Republic, who remember when she stood in solidarity with them and publicly challenged their new government's suppression of civil society.

They might talk to women - from the Philippines to Latin America to the Middle East - who can vote, own property, or go to school, because Hillary Clinton helped start a global women's movement for women's rights. Or they might travel to Africa and Asia, where Hillary Clinton visited countless remote villages to show how the poorest of the poor could become entrepreneurial and self-sufficient when given access to small loans.

In the heat of presidential campaign politics, candidates on both sides dismiss a First Lady's work as insignificant to foreign policy. But in Hillary Clinton's case, such a presumption is not only wrong, it trivializes the important global issues of human rights, democracy, and international development that are so central to strengthening American values and influence overseas and are hallmarks of her exhaustive work around the world.

As First Lady and now as a two-term senator who represents the most ethnically diverse state in the nation and who sits on the Armed Services Committee, Hillary Clinton has become a fixture on international issues over the past 15 years. She has traveled to more than 80 countries, going from barrios to rural villages to meetings with heads of state. She has consulted with dozens of world leaders - Nelson Mandela, King Abdullah, Tony Blair among them -- on matters as diverse as America and NATO's roles in Kosovo, eradicating poverty in the Third World, and the plight of women living under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Today, she is one of the most influential voices in the world on human rights, democracy, and the promotion of a "new internationalism" in foreign affairs that calls for a balanced use of military force, diplomacy, and social development to strengthen American interests and security globally.

Whether working to support civil society in Russia, pushing for programs to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa, or flying into war-torn Bosnia to nurture a new peace agreement, she has carried the message and face of American democracy to some of the most challenging regions of the globe.

Her historic speech at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 not only galvanized women around the world, it helped spawn a movement that led to advances politically, legally, economically, and socially for women in many countries over the next decade. Among other initiatives, she spearheaded the Clinton Administration's efforts to combat the global crisis of human trafficking. She persuaded the First Ladies of the Americas to use their collective power to eradicate measles and improve girls' education throughout the western Hemisphere. And she is widely credited with helping women in Kuwait finally win the right to vote.

Hillary Clinton understood early on that America could not export democracy and freedom without also winning the hearts and minds of people on society's margins and seeding American values from the ground up. (One need only look at the rise of Islamic extremism in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to appreciate the importance of that insight). To that end, she became one of the world's leading advocates for development programs like microfinance to create self-sufficiency among the world's poor; for education efforts to lift successive generations out of poverty and ignorance; for cost-effective health care programs to rid the world of deadly diseases that plague entire continents and stall social and economic progress.

She also knew that America had a unique role in the world as a beacon of freedom - and pluralism. She promoted religious tolerance from Morocco to Pakistan and convened the leaders of the world's major religions in Istanbul to discuss ways to fight religious extremism; she supported Protestant and Catholic women working on peace at the grass roots in northern Ireland; she challenged repressive heads of state in central Europe and central Asia who trampled on newly won democratic rights in their countries.

And with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, she helped launch the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, in which the United States trained women in the new democracies to become leaders in all sectors of their societies.

While American First Ladies historically have made great (and often overlooked) contributions to our nation, Hillary Clinton's wide-ranging experience on international issues as First Lady is unprecedented. Indeed, she is the only First Lady to have delivered foreign policy addresses at major gatherings of the United Nations, the World Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the World Economic Forum.

Over the past seven years, she has amplified her experience through her work in the Senate on military and national security issues, leading efforts to combat nuclear proliferation, end the genocide in Darfur, and ensure that American troops are properly equipped when they go to war and properly cared for when they return home.

The world knows Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the world respects her.

Comments

[Dres]

Well, what in the world would you expect these two former White House harridans to say about their old boss Hillary?

[fineGI]

The most experience she's had was being the first lady for 8 years..There's more to being the President of the United States of america! All the experience gained was being a women' freedom activist! In today's world, we need a strong-willed leader not afraid of taking the required action against the terrorists of these world!

[NoFactsJustTruth]

My favorite was in, I believe, the second debate when she called herself 'progressive', even while she STILL does NOT support EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS for same-sex couples.
She'd rather institutionalize ancient religious homophobic BIGOTRY into Law. That's about as 're'gressive as it gets.
Also, the whole pre-emptive war is 'on the table' stand, makes ANY discussion of her peacemaker/negotiater skills seem VERY hypocritical.

Oh and btw, Governor Richardson has MORE experience negotiating directly with foreign heads of state than Hillary and Barack combined.

[Susanvillian]

I was not aware of what a heroic presence Hillary is. We mere mortals are not worthy of her leadership.

[Jungman]

Hello? Hello? Eleanor Roosevelt! Ever hear of her? Hello? We seem to have lost our connection.

[marika]

In these troubled times I am not interested in "Play it again Sam."

What we need is judgment and character. We are now navigating in unexplored waters concerning world trade, financial crisis, climate change, world population, energy, information, the list is long. The generations are changing. Bill and Hillary are part of the past and we have had enough of dynasties.

[jade7243]

One word: RWANDA

Where the f*ck was Hillary?

And if she was so damn effective, why not release the records from her time in the White House as First Lady and prove it?

In her own book "Living History," Hillary records her "courtesy visit" (Hillary's words) with Robert Mugabe, who, it seems was so entranced with his new young wife, that he ignored her to gaze up his luscious young bride. So Hillary had to be content with making small talk with the new Mrs. Mugabe over tea.

The fact is her "experience" is as genuine as her cackle. By the standard of these two writers, Laura Bush may be even more experienced. Heck, Barbara Bush, senior, is more experienced. Wife of President, mother of President, wife of Vice-President, wife of CIA director, wife of ambassador...

If Hillary has experience, she needs to put up of shut up. What she has is a dysfunctional marriage which she is using to further her ambitions. Similarly ambitious women of her generation married well and when the time was right, divorced and traded up.

Hillary will not get my vote. Not now, not ever.

[karmaburger]

For better or worse the country is divided but I feel that a large portion of the populace will listen to reasonable arguments from people who may not share their views. There is a small minority who will only believe what the Rush's and Hannity's of the world tell them to believe. This will not change overnight.
This is why I believe that the next administration cannot effectively change anything. What we can hope for is someone in the Whitehouse who can propose ideas in such a way as to promote honest debate without the vitriol to which we've become accustomed.
Mrs Clinton may be qualified and could win the election but what can we honestly expect her to accomplish?
I am supporting Obama only because I believe he is the only candidate that can promote honest debate in what I will consider a transitional presidency.

[welshTerrier2]

Hillary the great humanitarian? You can't be serious.

The authors even had the audacity to speak about Hillary's understanding of winning the hearts and minds of the people in Iraq. Would that include perhaps as many as a half-million children who were starved to death by the sanctions on Iraq that were condoned and enforced by Hillary's husband? Did Hillary the Humanitarian speak out against those sanctions while hubby occupied the White House?

And, of course, Hillary, the "experienced humanitarian" voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq. With all her "unprecedented experience", she somehow concluded that Bush invading Iraq would "help" the Iraqi people. Do the authors want to make a case that women and children in Iraq are now better off because of her vote? I somehow doubt it.

Let's look at another humanitarian issue. How about cluster bombs and the devastation they cause to civilians?

The Feinstein amendment (S4882) stated:

"No funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer any cluster munition unless the rules of engagement applicable to the cluster munition ensure that the cluster munition will not be used in or near any concentrated population of civilians..."

Clear enough? The amendment would have protected civilians. Hillary voted against the amendment that would have protected civilians from these devastating weapons. Nice, huh?

We need not argue about whether Hillary does or doesn't have experience. What good is experience with misguided values like these?

Hillary has won the hearts and minds of America's defense industry. How much money has Big Defense contributed to her campaign? Real humanitarians talk about ending corporate welfare in the defense industry. Real humanitarians talk about reprioritizing America's spending away from death weapons and into health, education, and the American infrastructure. All I've heard from Hillary is how tough she is. I haven't heard a word about changing our national priorities by making massive cuts in weapons spending.

Hillary, the experienced humanitarian? Get real.

[macfee]

I work in education, I have a MFA, I live in an upscale area, I have yet to meet anyone who is voting for Hillary, not one.

This is just my own personal poll result but she is only slightly more popular than chicken pox.

Her pro-War stance is a mill stone I don't think she can overcome. Drinking the "koolaid" doesn't change how deeply disliked she is in general.

[ChristopherLib]

The mindless Clinton haters are ranting, yet not a single word of this heartfelt article is untrue. The Clinton haters run on emotion, not fact. Hillary if elected will be a great President, with a proven ability to get things done. She has true experience, and will fight for change.

[zull2]

Eleanor Roosevelt? Is she just chopped liver to you guys? Unprecidented, my behind. Hillary Clinton didn't have to fight even a fraction of the battles that Eleanor Roosevelt, whom Harry S Truman called "First Lady of the World" because of her widespread human rights achievements. She founded the UN Association of the US and was a delegate to the UN.

[mooph]

She lent her name and position of privilege to groups around the world. Others did the work.

Pretty good attempt to make her into a Princess Diana figure.

But her lukewarm solutions for the problems we're facing here at home -- healthcare, trade agreements, economic policy, _diplomatic_ foreign relations -- seem to be half-measures formulated to give the appearance of "fixing" problems, while they retain their corporatist and dominance-based inner workings.

[Imhotep]

She was a wonderful First Lady, but she'll make a lousy President. Vote Obama. Peace

[avergejoe]

condi has a lot of experience as well,
did a lot of good, right?