Hearing Holds Clues to Clinton’s Foreign Policy Approach

Mandate author, Phyllis Bennis appeared on the NewsHour talking about Clinton’s confirmation hearing.

It’s rather disturbing that, for example, when — when the incoming secretary spoke about Afghanistan, she talked about her own view of — in support of what appears to be president-elect Obama’s plan to double the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and then engage in a serious strategic discussion to figure out what to do.

To me, that sounds backwards. It seems to me that you figure out your strategy first, before you send additional troops. So, I think that this notion of soft power is very important, but I heard too many parts of her testimony today where she sort of said the opposite when it came to the specifics.

Watch the video here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/module.html?mod=0&pkg=13012009&seg=2