Why There Should Be Dem. Pres. Primaries in '16: Hillary Clinton's Two Foreign-Policy Catastrophes

Hillary Clinton Testifies to Congress on Benghazi Consulate Attack by YouTube

These reasons alone cry out for Hillary Clinton to be contested in Democratic primaries if she announces her candidacy for the Presidency. She will probably hold her announcement off for as long a time as possible, so as to give her prospective Democratic opponents as little time to fundraise and organize as possible; the truth must therefore get out about her starting right now -- it can wait no longer. A quinnipiac poll on March 7th was headlined "Clinton, Christie Lead The Pack In Early Look At 2016,"  and reported that, "Former First Lady, and Secretary of State Clinton wins easily against any" opponent, from either Party; and so, she will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee if she can hold her announcement off long enough to prevent primaries; but the argument here will be that that would be good for neither the Democratic Party nor the United States.

Many   commentators   have   mentioned  that Hillary Clinton left behind no major achievement as the U.S. Secretary of State, but that isn't true: the reality is that she did, several -- and all of them are harms to the U.S.

The disaster that the U.S. has caused in the small Central American nation of Honduras has been widely reported outside the United States, but most U.S. citizens know next to nothing about it; and therefore, here will be the first comprehensive account of it, in the U.S.:

On 28 June 2009, the Honduran military grabbed their nation's popular democratically elected progressive President, Manuel Zelaya, and flew him into exile. 

The AP headlined from Tegucigalpa the next day,  "World Leaders Pressure Honduras to Reverse Coup,"  and reported: "Leaders from Hugo Chavez to Barack Obama called for reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya, who was arrested in his pajamas Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and flew him into exile."

Secretary Clinton, in the press conference the day after the coup,  "Remarks at the Top of the Daily Press Briefing" , refused to commit the United States to restoration of the democratically elected President of Honduras. She refused even to commit the U.S. to using the enormous leverage it had over the Honduran Government to bring that about. Here was the relevant Q&A:

Mary Beth Sheridan. QUESTION: Madam Secretary, sorry, if I could just return for a second to Honduras, just to clarify Arshad's point -- so, I mean, the U.S. provides aid both under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Millennium challenge. So even though there are triggers in those; that countries have to behave -- not have coups, you're not going to cut off that aid?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Mary Beth, we're assessing what the final outcome of these actions will be. This has been a fast-moving set of circumstances over the last several days, and we're looking at that question now. Much of our assistance is conditioned on the integrity of the democratic system. But if we were able to get to a status quo that returned to the rule of law and constitutional order within a relatively short period of time, I think that would be a good outcome. So we're looking at all of this. We're considering the implications of it. But our priority is to try to work with our partners in restoring the constitutional order in Honduras.

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