Posted on 08/15/2004 2:50:14 PM PDT by swilhelm73
I seem to recall that the commander of Operation Infinite Reach, the 1998 cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan later was quoted as saying the attack was a good start, but he personally only viewed it as a one in a million shot.
Can anyone give me the exact quote, the name of the commander, or a link to either of these?






"Mr. Berger, calling Mr. Sandy Berger. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Please. This is urgent.
We can take out Osama, now. Please answer!!! We have him in our sight."
Berger-Burglar: "Nope. Forgetaboutit. No big deal. Bill and I are too busy watching the West Wing on TV."
"I was summoned to the office of National Security adviser Sandy Berger,
who chewed me out for not having a national security adviser (on the West Wing).
So I opened the next season with Anna Deavere Smith as the national security adviser" -
Aaron Sorkin
'If you've listened to recent interviews with Bill Clinton, you might have the impression that during his reign, Clinton's administration came oh-so-close to killing Osama bin Laden in a cruise missile attack in 1998. Clinton said, "We just missed him by a matter of hours, maybe even less than an hour."
Wow! Sounds like Osama Yomama narrowly escaped with his life, right?
Retired General Anthony Zinni was the commander of U.S. forces in the region at the time. He remembers differently. He told National Review that the 1998 cruise missile raid was a "million-to-one shot. ... There was a possibility [bin Laden] could have been there. My intelligence people did not put a lot of faith in that. ... As I was given this mission to do, I did not see that anyone had any degree of assurance or reliability that that was going to happen."
So, who do we believe? Bill Clinton, who likes to lie, or General Zinni and his intelligence people?
Can there be any doubt that Clinton is just trying to get face time in front of the news cameras and cover for his own administration's failures?'
Ex-envoy criticizes Bush's Postwar Policy [Retired general alert]
Gen. Zinni- 'They've Screwed Up' (New 60 Minutes hit piece)
General Zinni Bashing Bush Iraqi policy on NIGHTLINE
Americans Conned Into Backing War - Ex-General (Zinni) Says
Zinni Says Iraq War Was Poorly Planned (AOl-Reuters-CBS-Zinni alert)
Thanks greatly. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.