Clinton works behind the scenes at NATO as Obama gets limelight

AP Photo/Clinton at NATO

While President Barack Obama preens in the limelight, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hard work at the NATO conference is overlooked by most of the American Press.

However, on April 3, 2009, the Chicago Tribune has provided an update and quotes about her activities in regard to the situation in Afghanistan. Clinton's aim is said to be building a NATO consensus around the newly fashioned strategic reviews, composed of military, diplomatic and development components and U.S. strategy.  She says that now the action can start and met with the Afghanistan donor's conference in the Hague.

Ms. Clinton said

The NATO summit is not a pledging conference, but of course we will be talking about how our allies can match their resources to the needs identified in the strategic review.

She stressed that the resources she is talking about are not necessarily combat troops.

I think we're trying to focus on what we think will work, and what we believe will work is moving as quickly as possible as it is feasible to having security taken over by the Afghans themselves.

According to Ms. Clinton,

There's been very little credibility for what's already been invested...a lot of which did not work....The new U.S. approach involves looking at every single dollar as to how it's spent, and where it is going and trying to track the income.

While the work of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is usually overshadowed by the glamorous Obamas, the hard work she continues behind the scenes wins the respect of leaders from all over the world as she builds consensus around U.S. programs.

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