Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Benghazi Committee on Oct. 22, 2015. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)
Wingnut Republicans seem intent on electing Hillary Clinton president of the United States. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the embarrassing Benghazi committee hearings, which provided wall-to-wall positive media and a day of free airtime for the former secretary of state.
Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Congressional Republicans shooting themselves in the foot isn’t new. What’s tragic about the Benghazi hearings is that they displace the serious inquiries that we desperately need about the direction of our foreign policy.
The United States invaded Iraq more than a decade ago. The assault—with costs including nearly 4,500 US soldiers killed and more than $2 trillion and counting—destabilized the entire region. The Islamic State grew in the ruins. No viable government has been created, and US troops are going back in. We went after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Now Osama bin Laden is dead, but somehow the United States is becoming the guarantor of an Afghanistan government that can’t defend itself despite billions of dollars’ worth of arms and training. Obama now concedes that 5,500 troops or more will be staying on guard.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.