Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Photo Aaul Loeb/AP
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Pakistani government officials she was "sorry" for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed in American airstrikes last November.
With this acknowledgment, Pakistan agreed to re-open the supply lines to Afghanistan that had been closed since the incident.
It wasn't the formal "apology" Pakistan had demanded from the U.S. government as the pre- condition before considering a re-opening of the supply routes, but it was the best the Obama administration could come up with, considering the months of internal debate that ensued over whether it should formally admit to Pakistan any U.S. culpability for the attack.
But such is the state of U.S. "diplomacy" these days where the American global hegemonic state is always at pains to admit any wrongdoing for its transgressions lest it should appear "weak" in the face of potential condemnation coming from the domestic right wing echo chamber. So if innocents get killed while sleeping in their beds from our drone strikes or we send a missile that attacks celebrants in wedding party they're all insurgents and terrorists anyway and besides collateral damage happens in war. "Sorry".
Yet it's not just our diplomacy or perpetrating unnecessary war that is wanting, it's our overall militarized policy direction since 9/11. Not only the obsession with terrorists and terrorism, initiating unnecessary wars and occupations, drone strikes and missile attacks even in countries we're not at war with. It's also the increased militarization of our local and state police departments.
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