Due Credit to Madam Secretary
May 7, 2011
by Emine Dilek
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
United State’s arch-enemy Bin Ladin is finally captured and killed. Unfortunately even this unexpectedly good news did not stop the media from undermining one of the most powerful women in America, Hillary Clinton.
The dead silence of the media about her role in the decision making, planning and implementation of the raid to capture Bin Ladin as the Secretary of State is appalling. On top of it, the only coverage that mentions Mrs. Clinton’s involvement on Bin Ladin’s fall is about her reaction while watching the operation in the White House situation room with the President and other officials.
Reuters: Photograph of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama and others in the White House Situation Room during the bin Laden operation.
In a recent photo released by the White House, the Secretary of State happened to have her hand on her mouth while watching the commando operation and the news article in Reuters has the explanation for it: she had allergies. The article claims this was her answer when asked about the photo.
I am not sure if I am more offended by the news asking her why she was covering her mouth or her answer to try to conceal her most natural reaction as a human being watching a video where people were probably about to get killed.
Never mind that all the other people who happened to be men – there was one other woman – have similar expressions on their faces, we should ask why Mrs. Clinton was singled out as the only one should explain her body language? And why is showing concern and “anguish,” as Barry Moody of Reuters puts it, a problem or oddity? Any normal human being would show similar reaction to watching such a critical operation, especially when it was about your country’s national security and the stakes of failure were enormous.
Expressing humanity does not make one weak, fearful or incompetent, and these qualities do not belong only to women. I am not sure if Secretary of State, knowing the sexist undertones of our politics and culture still pervading, was trying to look tough or simply telling the truth, but I will go with her being honest. I am more concerned about the amount of –or little of it- media coverage that gives her the credit for the decision to go after Bin Ladin.
After 10 long years, billions of dollars, countless sacrifices and thousands of deaths, we finally got the man who was considered one of the most dangerous criminal masterminds of our times, and the only news Reuters cover about our –female- Secretary of State is why did she cover her mouth? No one praises the woman for her involvement in the planning of this operation, no one asks her the details of her responsibilities during the execution of the plan, but the only question asked was; why did she cover her mouth?
I will do what the entire news media failed to do for our Secretary of State who is one staffer has proven herself many times over; I will give her the credit she aptly deserves. Thank you madam Secretary! Thank you for your hard work on bringing this man to justice and offering some closure and comfort to our country’s people and to the families of the victims of 9/11 tragedy. Thank you for your service to our country, a job well done!
The fact that the male dominated media is still focused on minimizing Sec. Clinton’s role in the decisionmaking process of this important military action shows just how little was learned, if anything, of how wrong was the sexist, misogynistic vitriol unleased during the 2008 primary and GE. Clearly, the men in power have no intention of ever acknowleding any woman’s important contribution in any venture, whether it be political, business, medical, scientific, military, etc., while continuing to give way too much credit to those men who have done to nothing (obama) in making such decisions.
Sadly, the men who do not view women in such a sexist way have still not found their voice and their passion to stand with women in loud, public protest in much the same way they learned how to stand with the AA community, when it was fighting for the eradication of racism and the restoratiaon of their unalieable rights as human beings.
I don’t care how long I live, I will NEVER understand the male attitude towards women and why the majority of them persist in hanging on to this “hatred” of the other half of the human race. It defies all logic and rationale, yet men are the first to pride themselves with having heavy doses of both these qualities.
No wonder the world is in such turmoil and strife and about to implode upon itself.
Well, from all the different versions of this story and the constant white house clarifications, I’m starting to think SOS and Panetta were the only two people involved at all! I mean honestly, how many versions of this story are they going to release? Of course, no versions seem to involve the SOS at all, except for the fact that she has allergies.
The media may not be paying attention to Hillary, but I follow her every move. Her recent comments about how Osama had killed so many Muslims and done so much harm to the Muslim world was really remarkable. That’s the right path to go down to prevent others from following in his footsteps, tell the truth about him and make sure people know he wasn’t a hero or a martyr, he was more like a cult leader that thought nothing of murdering his own people.
just saw this
http://www.styleite.com/media/.....photoshop/
that tops and confirms all you said, Emine
I’m not concerned about the media not mentioning Hillary on this one, ONLY because I’d rather not see fatwas issued against her.
However it is SICKENING that Barry takes all the credit for it! And HE should have thanked HER in EVERY SPEECH!!
What does really p me off about the media is NOT MENTIONING THAT BARRY IS IN HIS GOLF CLOTHES IN THE PIC CAUSE HE HAD TO BE PULLED OFF THE COURSE TO JOIN THE ALREADY-IN-ACTION GROUP.
IMAGINE: Having to put your golf club down because everyone else is actually DOING THEIR JOBS!!
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