Who knows, actually... My view is there are two important pieces missing to the puzzlement that is this antiwar footing the left has taken. In regards to the intelligence failures under the Clinton Administration--it seems the behavior is more akin to enabling the behavior of the militant Whahabbi Islamists more than it was to stop them. Everything--from the support of Bosnian and Albanian Muslims in the Yugoslav wars, the lack of a response to direct attacks by AQ and the bizarre investigatory practices involving the three mentioned cases point to that. It made no sense politically for Clinton to fail to tie OKC to Iraq, or Islamist elements. Instead, it seems that they chose their perp, stuck w/it, made a big story to their short-term political advantage when a larger puzzle was being hidden from plain view. The Ramzi Yousef case laid out precisely future plans of offensive terrorist actions that led in a predictable line to the dramatic attacks of 9|11. For instance, we're talking about a movement led by one of the richest men in the world, well-connected to one of the largest corporate entities in a powerful international industry (I love it when the left whines about Hallibruton/Brown and Root--like the alternative for a big construction contract in the ME is who? Other than the French, it's Bin Ladin Group.) and a trained engineer, with an ability to get other well-trained, and thoughtful individuals to do his bidding. It was no surprise we'd be faced with such a daunting challenge. I'm not going to play up BinLadin as Lex Luthor, but he's pretty darn close.
The eight years of mismanagement, perfidy and seeming enabling allowed AQ, and the movement it has inspired to become an international threat not seen in quite some time.
That's a line that is hard to sell to the public--but I imagine it is one espoused in Washington, privately.
Exactly! And if they were to confront the *real* forces behind the earlier attacks (from WTC '93 and Somalia through the USS Cole), that would have involved some tough decisions and actions -- and would not have done Clinton any good in the all-important polls and focus groups.
He also got a lot of partisan mileage out of blaming the OKC bombing on "right-wing extremists" and trying to pin it on Rush Limbaugh, et al.
Oh, and as Maddy "The Mad Bomber" Halfbright once said re: how to respond to terrorist attacks, it wasn't "a good time to be bombing Muslims" -- that's when the perjuring rapist was still trying to squeeze a legacy out of Israel and the so-called palis.
Stupid sonofabitch would have had his legacy if he honestly (ha!) confronted islamofascist terrorism and 'splained it all to the soccer sucker moms as he did the "tough things" that Bush has had to face since 9/11/01.