WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton got an annoying reminder last week of a lesson she should have learned long ago: Be careful of what may be going on in your shop right under your very nose.

In her on-the-job training as a diplomat, Secretary of State Clinton had been very comfortable with media leaks that said she had teamed up with two titled hawks on Afghanistan.

They are the lippy Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of coalition forces, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 2007, who has been openly campaigning for more troops in Afghanistan since last winter.

Backing their call for 40,000 more soldiers, on top of 68,000 already there, the unchallenged leaks buttressed Clinton’s reputation as a toughie who voted for the Iraq War. Besides, there are those who think the presidency of Barack Obama can be destroyed if he follows their advice.

Enter Clinton’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry. Somebody in the White House leaked memos from Eikenberry warning Obama against sending troops that the hawks are demanding unless the Afghan regime ends the rampant corruption and mismanagement there. There is zero chance of that happening.

While Obama ponders Eikenberry’s measured advice, he should heed the clear voice of Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning. In a courageous floor speech on Nov. 4, Massa said Obama should bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

While his Democratic House colleagues cowered under their desks, Massa declared, “Today marks the 2,950th day of combat in the war in Afghanistan, without asking for a concurrent sacrifice from the American people.”

“We have spent or committed $300 billion, and that is only the money for which we can account,” Massa said. “Some will say it is twice that; for this war, like the war in Iraq, was paid for off budget. That is about $101 million per day for 2,950 days.” Compared with the 911 American dead, and 4,200 seriously wounded, the financial cost is the only good news, he said.

“To continue to fight and die for what the people of Afghanistan will not fight and die for is simply wrong,” Massa said.

Obama has put off the big decision on troops until he returns from China, where he has gone to “visit our money,” according to comic Conan O’Brien. A bipartisan group of House members led by Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, hopes Obama will do more than that. They sent him a letter criticizing his administration for failing to do anything about the way China artificially pegs the value of its money. Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and Chris Lee, R-Williamsville, signed the letter. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, who sits on the committee dealing with trade and currency, did not.

On his way out the door, Obama announced he wants a “jobs summit” to be held in December to share ideas on how to lower unemployment. It’s an empty gesture. He knows very well that unless China stops undervaluing its money and subsidizing its exports, there will be no lasting recovery in Western New York, Michigan, Ohio or anywhere else.

Obama skipped the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Instead, he shipped a video that was played in which he mentioned himself. He gracelessly omitted citing President Ronald Reagan or Poland’s Lech Walesa, a leader of Solidarity.

Poland is more apprehensive over Russia’s ambitions than at any time in the past 20 years, particularly since Obama ditched a plan to base a U. S. missile defense system there.

Why a politician from Chicago, a city with the largest Polish heritage population outside of Poland, would do that is anybody’s guess. In the meantime, Poland’s government begged the United States for some sign of military aid in the wake of Russia’s maneuvers in a neighboring country.