Pakistan will be keen to see Kerry succeed Hillary
The second Rice is off the menu and it is official. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, won’t follow into the footsteps of Condoleezza Rice, the first Afro-American woman secretary of state, after dropping out of the race to replace Hillary Clinton as the top diplomat.
The second Rice will surely rue an opportunity that slipped out of her hands just because she hadn’t weighed in on how sometimes words take a life of their own.
In Pakistan, it would be nearly inconceivable for people in positions of power to retire hurt over a couple of liners like the one Rice made about the Benghazi incident in which the American ambassador to Libya was killed last September.
Forgotten in the umbrage that followed her initial remarks was that Rice was speaking only on the basis of the information she had about the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life at that point in time.
After giving CBS’s Face the Nation to believe that “we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this (attack) was premeditated or preplanned,” Rice told ABC’s This Week that the attack “began spontaneously” before it was “hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons”.
Unfortunately for Rice, Patrick F Kennedy, US undersecretary for management, like Libyan President Mohammed Magarief elsewhere, had already described it as a “pre-planned” attack with the latter even suggesting an Al-Qaeda link.
To her credit, Rice had qualified her reaction by saying that “We’ll want to see the results of (an FBI) investigation to draw any definitive conclusions.” However, such trivialities weren’t considered worthy of defence. Ignored also was the fact that Rice’s remarks were premised in unclassified version of information approved by US intelligence services.
Politics appeared to win the day as Republicans moved in for the kill, threatening to block her confirmation if she was nominated. The irony was that the Senate had previously unanimously supported a resolution that described the attackers as “an angry mob of protestors” while making no mention of Al-Qaeda!
Nearly a hundred House Republicans sent a letter to President Barack Obama last month complaining Rice’s statements were “misleading” and that she should accordingly not be considered a candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton.
Despite the threats from former Republican presidential runner Senator John McCain and his fellow Republicans to do all they can to stop Rice’s anticipated elevation, President Obama had given no indication that he would be moved by GOP opposition in making a decision.
However, in actions we have come to recognise and associate with mature democracies, Rice withdrew from the race on December 13.
“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly — to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” Rice told Obama. “That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country… Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time.”
The strong defence offered by the White House indicated that Rice may have been uppermost in the president’s thoughts to lead the State Department.
“While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first,” Obama said in a statement. “The American people can be proud to have a public servant of her calibre and character representing our country.”
For Pakistan, it is the other candidate left in the fray who is of special interest: Senator John Kerry, a former Democratic presidential runner and the influential Chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. In the trying Obama years, the Massachusetts legislator has been a regular fixture on the diplomatic front viz-a-viz Pakistan but this has been more in the mould of troubleshooting in and out of Islamabad — somewhat aptly for his 6’4 frame and the proclivity to get on his bike.
When the bilaterals almost broke down in the wake of a secret operation by US Navy SEALs in Abbottabad to eliminate Osama bin Laden in May last year, it fell upon Kerry to undertake the mission impossible to placate the “frontline ally” in Islamabad.
While it would have been well nigh impossible for anyone else in his place to deliver, he was able to make a case for keeping the ties afloat even as he pleaded that getting rid of bin Laden was in the interest of Islamabad anyway.
The Pakistanis grudgingly listened not just because it would have been detrimental to disengage with the world’s pre-eminent superpower on an issue that disturbed the deep recesses of the American mind, there was the small matter of dealing with the consequences of having been caught with the world’s most wanted man — all the while denying his presence — in a rather strategic location.
At the same time, there is a soft corner for Kerry within the civilian government in Islamabad since he was instrumental in sponsoring and getting the Kerry-Lugar-Bergman Act passed in 2009, entailing a five-year $7.5 bn aid package for Pakistan.
If Kerry was indeed nominated and won confirmation, the military would have little choice but to deal with a secretary known for his strong support for democracy in general and civilian supremacy in particular.
The writer is Editor, Pique Magazine. He may be reached at [email protected]
