Hillary Clinton gets tough with "military dictatorships"

By Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com

I have this nagging, intuitive sense that there are a few inconsistencies embedded in these statements -- which some people in the target audience might perceive -- though I can't quite put my finger on what they are. Perhaps someone could help locate them:

Reuters, February 15, 2010: "The United States believes Iran's Revolutionary Guards are driving the country toward military dictatorship and should be targeted in any new U.N. sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday. . . . 'We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,' she said."

Associated Press, February 14, 2010: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a quick visit to Persian Gulf allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia, told a forum on U.S.-Muslim relations that Iran has not lived up to its nuclear obligations and has rebuffed U.S. and international efforts to engage in serious talks."

Hillary Clinton, March 10, 2009: "I really consider [Egyptian] President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States."

New York Times, February 10, 2010: "The Iraqi Army’s Fourth Division cordoned off the provincial council building here overnight on Tuesday and showed no sign on Wednesday of leaving. It was the latest in a series of actions by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that have infuriated his political opponents, while raising doubts about the strength of the country’s laws and democratic institutions. . . . In a dispute over the provincial council’s legal powers to appoint a governor, Mr. Maliki ordered in the military here -- for the second time -- to exert his influence. American military commanders and diplomats expressed alarm at his willingness to use force."

(Continued here.)