| Popis: |
During her visit to Pakistan in October 2009, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received wide media coverage for her comments that she found “it hard to believe that nobody in [the Pakistani] government knows where they [al-Qaeda leaders] are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to” (Landler 2009). Receiving less attention was Clinton’s encounter with the women of Pakistan during a town-hall style meeting in Islamabad on the final day of her trip. At this televised conference, Clinton took questions from a panel and audience made up of women activists, academics, lawyers, journalists, parliamentarians, and businesswomen from across Pakistan (Yusuf 2009). While the carefully staged meeting was meant to finish the trip on a high note, the female audience voiced dissatisfaction with the U.S. war on terror policy in Pakistan; as one journalist addressed Clinton, “You had one 9/11, and we are having daily 9/11s in Pakistan” (Rodriguez 2009). Another audience member asked Clinton whether the American use of “drones”—the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have become a central component of the American war on terror-could be considered as an act of terrorism, comparable to the car bombing that killed 100 civilians in a crowded market in the city of Peshawar in the week just prior to Clinton’s visit. Does terrorism include, the woman asked, “the killing of people in drone attacks?” (CBS News 2009). Clinton denied the linkage made by the woman, and declined to comment on “any particular tactic or technology” being used in the American effort. |
