Hillary Clinton: We Need to “Empathize” With America’s Enemies

Russian-President-Vladimir-Putin-and-Hillary-Clinton

Americans who couldn’t get enough of six years of appeasement and pandering to our enemies can get eight more years of the same in 2016.

All they have to do is vote Hillary. Who is Ready for Hillary? Iran, North Korea and Al Qaeda.

Hillary Clinton is taking heat for saying America should “empathize” and show “respect” for its enemies.

The former secretary of State, who is considered a likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, made the remarks during a speech Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Touting an approach she calls “smart power,” Clinton urged America to use “every possible tool and partner” to advance peace.

This, she said, includes “leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect even for one’s enemies, trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view.”

We already know how that works.

After Benghazi, Hillary Clinton promised the father of a murdered SEAL that they would get the man who made the video. And they did. He went to prison for offending Muslims. Meanwhile the Jihadists who did it took over Benghazi and entire Libyan cities.

Obama ran on a “Smart Power” foreign policy. That means trashing our allies and rewarding our enemies. It led to Al Qaeda takeovers of entire countries and an Iranian nuclear program rushing toward doomsday.

It led to widespread contempt for America, to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite Hillary’s “Reset Button”. It led to renewed Chinese aggression.

And the only thing Hillary Clinton has to offer is more of the same. This isn’t a new car smell. It’s the smell of a burning building. It’s the odor of toxic gasses in Syria. It’s the stench of American power and influence going up in smoke.

  • Texas Patriot

    Russia and China are not “enemies” of the United States. They are economic and military competitors who want the best for their nations and their people just as we should want the best for our nation and our people. And in the emerging global struggle against the combined forces of Islamic Jihad, Russia and China are the only two nations on earth with the necessary economic and military muscle to defeat the most serious threat ever faced by the civilized world. Just as America, Russia, and Great Britain came together to defeat the combined forces of Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII, America, Russia, and China need to come together today to defeat and eradicate the combined forces of Islamic Jihad in what will certainly be regarded by historians as WWIII.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      Russia and China don’t simply want the best for their people. They want the worst for us.

      They actively hate us, are certain that we are conspiring against them and believe that their ascension requires taking us down.

      We can either deal with that or live in a fantasy world.

      Yes all three countries have common interests when it comes to Muslim terrorists, but all three countries view Muslim terrorists as proxies to be used against each other, just as the US and USSR did.

      Until that actually changes, no unity of purpose is possible.

      • Texas Patriot

        DG: Russia and China don’t simply want the best for their people. They want the worst for us.

        That’s not any more true than saying we want the worst for them, and I don’t think that is the case. Russia and China have two of the largest concentration of Christians in the world, and they are ideally suited to join us in the war against the global forces of Islamic Jihad. Competitors always want to win, but strong and healthy competitors welcome strong and healthy competition to bring out the best in themselves. Just as we should want a strong and healthy Russia and China, they should want a strong and healthy America.

        Human nature being what it is, perhaps there will always be an element of negativity in any competition, but if we are healthy and we are strong, we can be watchful for any signs of unfair competition on the part of our competitors. As Thomas Jefferson said, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Or as Ronald Reagan said, trust but verify.

        • Daniel_Greenfield

          Russia and China are not just “us” with different accents. They’re old countries with a great deal of history, a lot of xenophobia and totalitarian governments.

          This is the basic thing that liberals and a lot of Republicans fail to grasp about foreign policy. The other side does not thing like us.

          Russia and China do not want a healthy America. They feel that they were robbed of their rightful place in the world by the West. They see themselves locked in a fundamental struggle with us, the same way that Muslims do.

          American nationalism is open and generous. Russian and Chinese nationalism isn’t.

          • Texas Patriot

            DG: Russia and China do not want a healthy America. They feel that they were robbed of their rightful place in the world by the West.

            There is some truth to that. Chins and Russia are perhaps two of the oldest continuous and still largely homogeneous civilizations on earth, and of course it is always unsettling and somewhat disconcerting when a relatively new upstart invents a better mousetrap and makes you look old and stale and irrelevant. And perhaps there is still a lingering resentment for the way a young America rose up in the 19th Century to become the most productive and innovative nation on earth. But those days are gone.

            For the last fifty years, America has been a nation in decline. We’ve gone from having the best schools in the world in the early 1960s, to having the worst schools of any major industrialized nation today. We’ve gone from being one of the most healthy, vigorous and competitive nations on earth, to one of the most sedentary and obese. We have steadily lost entire industries and millions of jobs to foreign competition, and we have run trade and budget deficits for most of the last forty years. Instead of being the largest creditor nation on earth as we were in the early sixties, we are the largest debtor nation today, and we are still borrowing something on the order of $1.6 billion a day just to pay our bills as they come due. Whatever reasons the Chinese and Russians may have had to be jealous of our success before are long gone today.

            And not only that, instead of sticking with their old ways of doing things which no longer worked, the emerging economic powers of the world, especially China and India, have studied our innovations in math, science, electronics, automation, mass production, and robotics, and are now pushing the envelope themselves in forming the great industrial nations of the future. Pretending that “We’re No. 1, and everyone is jealous of us” may work for some, but most Americans are now waking up to what has happened to us as a result of our own failure to pursue excellence and remain competitive.. As Abraham Lincoln said, you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

          • Daniel_Greenfield

            You’re assuming that their attitudes are rational and fact-based. Human attitudes aren’t.

            Russia and China feel kept down by the West. Having an enemy is convenient because it mobilizes them and gives them an excuse for any failures.

            America is an outside enemy. Russia and China have large Muslim populations.

          • Texas Patriot

            DG: You’re assuming that their attitudes are rational and fact-based. Human attitudes aren’t.

            Very true. As with all other human beings on the planet earth, their attitudes are a combination of observation and reason, and paranoid and unreasoning fear, just like ours are. Nothing about that will ever change as long as human beings continue to survive on this planet.

            DG: Russia and China feel kept down by the West. Having an enemy is convenient because it mobilizes them and gives them an excuse for any failures.

            China just surpassed America in terms of GDP as the largest and most productive economy in the world. Russia has huge undeveloped oil and gas reserves that guarantee Russia’s place at the table for many decades to come. Both nations have copied American design and manufacturing ideas, and both have sophisticated scientists and engineers, and extremely sophisticated defense programs. Not as good as ours, yet. But they are making substantial progress, and seem to be closing the gap. From my perspective, neither seems to be making many excuses for failures these days.

            DG: America is an outside enemy. Russia and China have large Muslim populations.

            Russia in particular has a large Muslim population, and they’ve had one for hundreds of years. The region of Chechnya is one of the most lawless and dangerous in the world, and the Christian population of Russia knows exactly what they are facing if the Islamists ever get the upper hand. Like America, China also has a small minority of Muslims, but they also are well aware of the danger that presents to their much larger population of non-Muslims and growing population of Christians.

            The biggest risk we face with Russia and China today is viewing them through the well-worn lens of the Cold War. Like an old pair of glasses that no longer fits our prescription, we need to put away our Cold War lenses and put on our WWIII glasses. In the context of WWIII, we have much more in common with Russia and China than we may think, and in the context of suppressing the worldwide bonfire of Islamic Jihad Russia and China are very likely to be the best and most indispensable allies we could possibly have, and vice versa.

          • truebearing

            Untenable idealism has other, less diplomatic names. Your baseless theories on Russia and China fall squarely into that category. Neither are even close to being our friends.

            Friends don’t steal technology from friends to gain the upper hand in an expected war. Russia and China have stolen from us repeatedly for that very reason.

            Friends don’t violate treaties with friends, like Russia has done repeatedly.

            Friends don’t try to debase a friendly nation’s economy like both Russia and China are in the process of doing to the US.

          • Texas Patriot

            Your amazing and unrelenting density and obtuseness come once again shining to the fore, and no doubt the forces of Islamic Jihad are cheering you on every step of the way. Drive a wedge between America, Russia, and China and get the major powers to destroy each other. We got them to destroy Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, and Mummer Gaddafi for us, why can’t we get them to destroy each other as well?

            The truth of the matter is that we live in an age of unparalleled information transparency and availability, and everyone is spying on everyone else all of the time. Unless you want to remain forever stuck in some 1950s paranoia scenario, read the new book @War by Shane Harris in which he details the kind of cyber warfare and espionage now taking place between and among all the major industrialized nations of the world including America, Russia, and China.

            At this point in time there are few secrets anymore among anyone, anywhere about anything, and the fact that Russia and China are spying on us does not prevent us from spying on them and everyone else, and of course we are doing precisely that. And if you will take great care in reading the classic Art of War by Sun Tzu which was written over twenty-five hundred years ago, perhaps you will see that nothing has really changed at all. Everyone has always done as much as they possibly could to find out everything they could about their friends and their enemies alike. But don’t let any of that slow you down. If you keep up the good work, no doubt your name will soon be circulating on all the Jihadist message boards as the Great White Hope in America!

          • truebearing

            You didn’t insult Greenfield when he thoroughly destroyed your delusion. Why start insulting me for disagreeing, and providing reasons why? You, who are eminently insultable, should restrain yourself better, or you will reap far more than you can sow.

          • Texas Patriot

            Greenfield, I respect. You make me laugh. But keep up the great work. Every board needs comic relief.

          • MaMcGriz

            Oh you’re way funnier than truebearing.
            Way funnier.

          • Texas Patriot

            Glad to hear it. Keep laughing, Ma. Just keep laughing.

          • truebearing

            You respect Greenfield, but frequently disagree with him, and even insult him. What is the basis of your respect?

          • Texas Patriot

            TB: You respect Greenfield, but frequently disagree with him, and even insult him.

            I think that’s as far off base as you’ve ever been about anything, and that’s saying something. First, only totalitarian ideologues are “insulted” when someone disagrees with them. Second, true conservatives welcome vigorous analysis, dissection, examination, and cross-examination of their ideas and views as essential prerequisites and safeguards in the never-ending quest for truth about anything. If you are even remotely suggesting that Daniel Greenfield is a totalitarian ideologue or that he is not a true conservative, I think you owe him an apology.

          • MaMcGriz

            Sounds like you struck a nerve.
            Good work.

          • Texas Patriot

            I hope he keeps it up. There’s nothing I like better than to be challenged or attacked by TB.

          • hiernonymous

            “You, who are eminently insultable, should restrain yourself better, or you will reap far more than you can sow.”

            Do yourself a favor and read up on the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

          • Americana

            Well, you piqued my interest and I had to go and read up on the Dunning-Kruger Effect in Wikipedia. Now I’m all freaked out about percentiles and my ranking and such!!!! Aaaarrrrgh… The only saving grace about reading the Wiki entry on the DK Effect was the story about the bank robber who put lemon juice on his face prior to robbing the chosen bank in order to make himself invisible because he knew lemon juice is used for invisible ink. ;)))))) Killer funny story…

            (I’m not gonna worry about percentiles, not gonna worry about percentiles, not gonna worry, period.)

          • truebearing

            Thank your fellow narcissist for making you even more self-obsessed.

          • Americana

            I guess you didn’t read about the Dunning-Kruger Effect. There are two ends of the spectrum and every category in between those two extremes. I’m hardly worried about being on the end you’re implying w/your usual narcissist slur. I’ve got my own worries about that part of me since I’ve got two sisters who rate as being (________) and I’m not in their league. I’m good w/plants and animals though so even if you consider me an animal, vegetable or mineral, you’re sort of in a ballpark where I’m content to be me!

            Despite your aversion to their study and the recognition that it is a very real and fascinating psychological phenomenon, we should all be aware of it and its implications. (To get back to being serious about the matter at hand… I’m going to return to vegetable status on the couch w/the dogs.)

          • truebearing

            To paraphrase Shakespeare: The hypocrite doth project… err…protest too much.

            Thanks, it fits you perfectly. No doubt you see yourself as one so superior that you can’t help but underestimate your own intelligence, but apparently you aren’t brilliant enough to see the irony of you, of all of the supercilious, arrogant, narcissists, being the one to bring this Dunning-Kruger Effect up.

            Doubly ironic is your attempt to cut and paste psychological insight when you have so little emotional intelligence.

          • hiernonymous

            You asked a question. You don’t care for the answer. No surprise.

  • DVult

    Calling something smart does not make it so. This woman is incredibly transparent. She doesn’t believe any of the garbage coming out of her mouth but just says whatever she thinks will get her what she wants. She claims that we should respect everyone including the enemy. Does this include US consular personnel or anyone else she deals with? She will boot lick anyone who has more power than she does and defecate on anyone with less. How is this respect? The woman is not even a good liar.

    • kasandra

      Oh, they just use the term “Smart Power” to fool stupid voters into believing that by not standing up for their country’s interests because of their own cowardice they’re actually doing something positive. Also they’re trying to distinguish themselves from the “evil” people who used real power to defeat our enemies.

      • emag

        Is she really that stupid to say something so dumb?

        • kasandra

          No. She’s appealing to voters who are stupid enough to be impressed by such drivel. They elected Obama twice, didn’t they?

  • Colt

    Hillary should know. SHE is the enemy of the United States.

    • Bryan Schmick

      Explains why she feels America should empathize with our enemies.

  • Scar

    So Hillary said that America “should ‘empathize’ and show ‘respect’ for its enemies.” I think she was actually referring to Obama, Holder, Reid, herself and the Progressive movement at-large. The Dems have been suffering a collective depression since they got steam-rolled last month. But they need not worry, because the Republicans will behave like migrating lemmings over the next two years and the Dems will eventually get what they want anyway.

  • herb benty

    Empathize, respect, for Islam!? Look at the Putin/Hillarious picture, Putin has hc totally bedazzeled. Funny how a “progressive” can’t hide their communism.

  • herb benty

    This habit of Democrats to swoon for the “noble savage” BS, will get us in a pile of trouble. A Free, godly People do not, “empathize” with, beheadings, mutilations, hangings, burying alive innocent men women and children. We annihilate this satanic cult. But evil Islam hates Israel, which “dovetails” with communism, leftism, atheism, evolution and arrogant intellectualism.

  • Craig Gorsuch

    Respect our enemies? Yes. (Sun Tzu advocated this.) It means our adversaries will be treated seriously as adversaries, not “frenemies” nor “misunderstood, antagonistic people groups who are just like us except different”. Actually, to treat someone in the manner I just described means we do NOT respect our enemies.

    Understand their perspectives? Yes. It only aids our ability to interact with them and ultimately combat their ideology before escalating to combatting militaries if required. Non-American ideologies towards their goals (both social and military) are often vastly different than American ideologies towards our goals (both social and military). If only our “self-appointed, elitist, citizen-of-the-world, beneficent” officials would actually understand that.

    Empathize with them? Absolutely not. We are not to be their advocate. We are not to be their “buddy” if they engage in actions we don’t support. When our adversaries need a smackdown, we should be *prepared* to do so. And we should *never* rush to be the “hand of vengeance” upon any adversary unless they are attacking US soil.

    But when diplomacy fails, and negations are stalled, and it’s time for the hammer to fall; we’d damn well should scorch the earth and leave nothing but devastation in our wake! Those who seek destruction and mayhem should find it by our hand if they are inclined to provoke us!

    The cries of our enemies: “We love death more than you love life” should be a rallying cry for us give them what they are asking for.

    • De Doc

      Who needs Sun-Tsu, when you have Saul Alinsky’s, “Rules for Radicals”?

    • DaveACIM

      with respect to Sun Tzu, Christ taught almost word for word what Hillary is saying here — my vote goes there –with respect to other views as well–not as a religious person (which I am not) but as one who believes in the wisdom and power of love in worldly events — as shown not only by Christ but by Ghandi, MLK, and many others –their effects seem to be longer lasting than the thugs of history

      • truebearing

        You’re a phony, and either a fool or a troll…or both.

        Maybe you should review some of Hillary’s distinctly hateful moments, like her laughing about getting a child rapist off, or smearing the women who were sexually assualted by her vile husband. Maybe, if you weren’t a leftie troll, you would recoil at Hillary’s scheming with a N azi collaborator — George Soros — to create the cabal that turned the Democratic Party communist.

      • objectivefactsmatter

        You’d like to see Hillary as the next Pope? Good luck with that.

      • Crusty Ole Fool

        Just where did you find such a corrupted thesaurus that conflates “emphathy” with “love”?
        The long lasting effects you cite shows a deep ignorance of facts and history. Just to take your latest example, MLK, just what implementation of his philosophy do you find anywhere today?

      • Ike Clanton

        Isn’t this treason? Anybody who believes you empathize with people who
        behead people and want to do everything to kill you is what? out of
        their minds, stupid, treasonous, pandering to the left. As for turning the other cheek. Maybe you have a right to turn yours, but not mine. I vote for kill as many as you possibly can.

    • Rand Swanson

      Empathizing with our enemies? Pretty darn close to giving aid & comfort to our enemies.

  • http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/ Edward Cline

    I guess FDR really empathized with Hitler and the Nazis, albeit he did empathize with Stalin and Soviet Russia and tailored our WWII policy on Stalin’s terms. Perhaps Hillary thinks the Stalin part will work again. What fantasy land do these people live in?

    • tagalog

      Considering the issue of empathizing with Stalin and Soviet Russia, I’ve been watching the “Why We Fight” series of training films that Frank Capra produced for the U.S. Army in World War II, and watched Parts I and II of “The Battle of Russia” last night.

      Interesting the historical facts that were left out of those films when it came to our Communist ally. In the first film of the series, for example, the invasion of Poland by the Germans in 1939 was depicted as coming to a halt for the Germans in eastern Poland when they ran up against the Red Army there. No discussion of exactly WHY the Red Army just happened to be there.

      • Bryan Schmick

        I’m guessing they didn’t mention the Katyn Forest massacre either.

        • tagalog

          No they didn’t, although they did show shots of certain bodies being found, but they were not long buried and were dressed like civilians, so I suspect that it was Babi Yar, but when the film was made (1943 or 1944), it was still thought that the Katyn Forest was a massacre carried out by the Germans.

      • emag

        The Russians made fun of her “reset button” with Russia for a long time.
        They thought it was so dumb.

        • tagalog

          The Russians have the quality of being brutally frank when they want to be, something that is both a virtue and a flaw in their national character.

  • Gee

    I have all the respect for Islamofascists as did Americans respect Nazis. The object of enemies is their utter destruction and death not to empathize.

    The job of the American Commander-in-Chief is to kill their enemies not to talk to them.

  • SoCalMike

    Of course Hillary empathizes with our enemies.
    So does John Kerry and Obama.
    The entire population of Left Wing Characters whether in media or government hate us and empathize with the enemies of Middle Traditional America.

  • knowshistory

    empathize with islam? sure. I would love to empathize. islam should be treated like smallpox. kill off all but a few remaining muslims, then put them in liquid nitrogen to be studied by future generations. allah needs to join baal, zeus, thor, and other myths on the scrapheap of history. yes, children, there was a religion which rewarded believers in a fictitious god by allowing them to murder, rob, rape, and molest. oh, btw, there was a god who threw a hammer and caused thunder. ridiculous, isn’t it?

  • Bamaguje

    Indeed how are we supposed to empathize with Jihadists whose vile dogma enjoins them to exterminate us?
    It isn’t that the Left empathizes with the enemy, the Left is the enemy.
    Hillary’s call for “empathy” is therefore a shout out to other enemy allies of the Left – notably Islamists.

  • knowshistory

    the scary thing is that after republicans blunder and empathize with democrats for the next 2 years, the same public that fell for Obama will be ready to vote for ohillary.

  • tagalog

    I’ll be happy to empathize with my country’s enemies when they surrender unconditionally. Then I’ll try to understand them.

  • sendtheclunkerbacktochicago

    How about the “domestic enemy” sitting in the sleeper cell at 1600 Penn Ave. that Hillary knew was not a “natural born Citizen” and said NOTHING during her campaign. Her attorney Philip Berg knew that Barry was not a “natural born Citizen” and he was blocked every step of the way by a corrupt and paid for justice system. They all suck!

  • pupsncats

    Of course we have to empathize with our enemies. Too many Americans have done that every time they push the lever to vote for a Democrat. HITLERy believes we can survive another four to eight years of Regressive insanity even though the world is in flames, including the black enclaves in America, thanks to her and her fellow barbarians.

  • cree

    Her comment has that utopian ring to it, yeah? “Smart” cause its worked so well in the past? This time around will be different; Obama’s policies proves it and she’ll carry on in the same “smart” tradition that will build (weakness) trust. We’ll see, cause remember how well progressives have empathized with conservatism.

  • truebearing

    Respect our enemies for what? Beheading Christians? Raping little girls? Invading nations? Trading slaves? Violating treaties? Trying to destroy the US?

    Apparently, Hillary is trying to motivate her base…Russians, Muslims, child molestors, or anyone who will give her money.

  • DaveACIM

    She sounds CHRISTIAN!! Who would have thought the most Christian
    candidate would be Hillary Clinton–but who else has sounded more Christ
    like? What she is saying is a direct quote, almost, from Christ—

    Matthew
    44-45—”You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
    and hate your enemy.’ 44″But I say to you, love your enemies and pray
    for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father
    who is in heaven; for He causes His
    sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous
    and the unrighteous.…”

    That was the thinking behind one of the most effective foreign policy decision in
    American history, the Marshall Plan–it seems to
    work, and is also the only way I can see to be a Christian in relation
    to foreign policy–and I hope American Christians will rally behind her
    in this–it is a step of true faith, that the most powerful response to
    fear and terrorism is love, that love, not violence, heals, and that
    THIS is the core of American Greatness

    • DaveACIM

      I get it if people do not feel this is pragmatic–but it IS undeniably Christian –a core Christian value–and would naturally be supported by those who have faith in and follow Christ’s teachings–I agree with her as well, as I consider Christ a far more pragmatically and powerfully wise teacher than Sun Tzu, Oliver North or many (all) others !

      • truebearing

        Jesus warned his followers about people who pose as false messiahs, too. Anyone can express a sentiment that sounds similar to the teachings of Christ, just to get votes.

      • joe kulak

        Yes, you too can be crucified.

    • truebearing

      There is nothing in Christ’s words about respecting our enemies. His words about loving one’s enemies are in the context of interpersonal relations, not warmongering nations that believe you deserve to die because you don’t believe in the evil they believe in. Jesus also counseled people to resist evil. You might want to try resisting falling for Hillary’s evil just for practice.

      Are you really so gullible that you believe Hillary Clinton is a Christian? Seriously? Or are you a troll trying desperately to put a new spin on old evil?

    • joe kulak

      Bats in the belfry, dude.

  • Hank Rearden

    I like Conan the Barbarian better…to drive our enemies before us and hear the lamentations of their women.

    • reyol

      That’s actually attributed to Genghis Khan when he was conducting a little professional development / team building with his generals and was used in the movie. Robert E. Howard’s literary character never said it. A good contrast with ‘empathy for enemies’ though.

      • Hank Rearden

        I hadn’t heard that, but it works.

        Sensitivity training by Genghis Khan.

  • reyol

    Since our military is no longer allowed to hate the enemy but must kill in cold bureaucratic / legalistic detachment after consulting the latest Rules of Engagement, maybe this empathy thing might work out. When Madame Commander-in-Chief adds “All deployed servicemembers must empathize with the opposition forces” to the ROE, our servicemembers will then tap into the hate that they feel for us and be able to kill in hot blooded passion on combat missions. I’m saying, it may be a loophole for our troops. Of course, that’s not the intention. The intention is to make killing impossible.

  • Peter Castle

    Hillary and the Obama administration actually have pursued this approach to death – the death of innocent Americans in Benghazi. Terrorists and tyrants cannot be appeased or placated. Diplomacy cannot work with ISIS or the maniacs ruling Iran.

    See “Hillary Crazy about Crazies” at http://wp.me/p4scHf-5N.

  • cheri

    Yeah. We should have vicariously explored the feelings, thoughts and experiences of the Japanese after they bombed Pearl Harbor and pelted compassion down on them instead of bombs! Surely, empathy would have brought them to their knees.
    An old saying still rings true: “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” (Ecc. 8:11)

  • tagalog

    Empathy for our enemies is good to the extent that it aids us in confronting their enmity effectively. Otherwise it’s crippling.