The mention of Hillary Clinton in an MSM op ed, whether liberal or conservative, continues to wave a red flag for me, and I approach the author’s words warily. Even when praise for Hillary is involved, it’s often followed by some underhanded jab still dripping from its bath in the cesspool of right-wing misogyny of the 90s.
A red flag popped up this morning when I noticed Eugene Robinson’s column in the Washington Post, accompanied by Hillary’s photo. Robinson is the guy who was so infatuated with Barack Obama during the Democratic primary that in a piece entitled “Clinton’s Grim Scenario,” he accused Hillary of sacrificing her soul in her bid for her party’s nomination. I responded to Robinson’s egregious smear attempt here.
Lately, though, Hillary’s critics seem to have subsided. Could it be the applause she’s received in her travels around the world and her 71% approval rating for the way she’s fulfilling her responsibilities as secretary of state has thrown them off course?
I’ve read through Robinson’s column today a couple of times, and it appears his praise of Hillary’s forthright pronouncement on the illegal drug trade between Mexico and the United States might actually be sincere.
Robinson writes (emphasis mine):
It's an indictment of our fact-averse political culture that a statement of the blindingly obvious could sound so revolutionary. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on her plane Wednesday as she flew to Mexico for an official visit. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border . . . causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."
Amazingly, U.S. officials have avoided facing these facts for decades. This is not just an intellectual blind spot but a moral failure, one that has had horrific consequences for Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and other Latin American and Caribbean nations. Clinton deserves high praise for acknowledging that the United States bears "shared responsibility" for the drug-fueled violence sweeping Mexico, which has claimed more than 7,000 lives since the beginning of 2008. But that means we will also share responsibility for the next 7,000 killings as well.
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