Telling It Like It Is

Secretary Clinton doesn’t sugar coat her diplomacy, which is probably a good thing, although it seems to take some people by surprise:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she did not come to Pakistan for “happy talk.”

Her three-day trip is aimed at getting frank, open discussions going about the fight against terrorism, and that includes presenting U.S. concerns about how much success Pakistan is having, she said.

In an interview with CNN, Clinton said it’s time to “clear the air” with a key U.S. ally. She added, “I don’t think the way you deal with negative feelings is to pretend they’re not there.”

“I think it’s important, if we are going to have the kind of cooperative partnership, that I think is in the best interest of both of our countries, for me to express some of the questions that are on the minds of the American people,” Clinton told CNN’s Jill Dougherty.

The secretary’s comments came a day after she seemed to question the commitment of some in the Pakistani government for going after the leaders of al Qaeda, who U.S. intelligence experts believe are taking refuge in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas.

“Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she told a group of Pakistani journalists Thursday. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to.” She added, “Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”

In the CNN interview Friday, Clinton said she was not suggesting that someone inside the government might be complicit with al Qaeda or might be failing to follow through in fighting the terrorist group.

“No, no,” she said. “What I was responding to is what I have been really doing on this trip, which is there exists a trust deficit, certainly on the part of Pakistanis toward the United States, toward our intentions and our actions. And yet we have so much in common, we face a common threat. We certainly have a common enemy in extremism and terrorism, and so part of what I have been doing is answering every single charge, every question.”

Trust “is a two-way street,” she added. While Pakistan’s military operation has been “extremely courageous in both Swat and now in South Waziristan, success there is not sufficient,” she said. “… I just want to keep putting on the table that we have some concerns as well. And I think … that’s the kind of relationship I’m looking to build here.”

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