Posted on 09/18/2005 10:56:31 AM PDT by wagglebee
Contradicting his previous statements on the Iraq war, ex-President Bill Clinton said Sunday that there was no basis to attack the rogue nation when President Bush began the Iraq war two years ago.
"The administration . . . decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed - with no real urgency, no evidence that there was any weapons of mass destruction there," he complained to ABC's "This Week."
"I didn't not favor what was done," Clinton said.
"I thought that diverted our attention from [Afghanistan] and al Qaida and undermined the support that we might have had," he said. "But what's done is done."
Clinton's comments represented a marked shift from the position he took as president.
"We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century," he warned in a Feb. 1998 speech.
"And they will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. . . . There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein's Iraq. His regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region and the security of all the rest of us."
But the ex-president suggested Sunday that deposing Saddam by military force had been a mistake.
Asked if he thought the U.S. had a strategy for victory in Iraq, Clinton told "This Week": "Well, if we do it's not working right now."
If he were president, Clinton said he'd make stabilizing Afghanistan a bigger priority than securing Iraq.
"The only thing I would sacrifice [Iraq] to is if I felt we were going to lose in Afghanistan. We cannot lose in Afghanistan. We cannot let the Taliban come back. We cannot let Karzai fail. We cannot relax our efforts to try to keep undermining the al Qaida because that's still, by far, a bigger threat to our security."
Since Clinton is so opposed to the war in Iraq, he must be REALLY ticked that Hillary voted to support it.
If there had never been eight years of the Clinton Freak show-the plagues from Pandora's box would not be plaguing us today.
Why is anything this fool says news worthy, except to the enemies of the USA, both foreign and domestic and all adorers of Clinton?
More anti Americanism from the mouth that can't be duct taped.
Nope,it's even more sinister than that.It was established long ago that Billy Bob's always willing to spread his legs (figuratively) if it gets him power or money.He figures that this will help his wide bodied bride in '08.
It's that simple,IMHO.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/
Text Of Clinton Statement On Iraq
Text of President Clinton's address to Joint Chiefs of Staff and Pentagon staff:
excerpt; If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. We want to seriously reduce his capacity to threaten his neighbors.
I am quite confident, from the briefing I have just received from our military leaders, that we can achieve the objective and secure our vital strategic interests.
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
- Bill Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998
"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."
- Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
- Sandy Berger,Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."
- Madeline Albright, Clinton's Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA),Sept. 27, 2002
Should I continue?
Well, he's a bit hard to ignore when the Bush Administration is basically employing the guy.
BTW - Don't you use that charm of making on me!
It looks like he's preparing the platform for his dear, sweet wife's campaign, huh? Those two must keep in step.
More wisdom from this self-ingratiating buffoon.
Taking attention off of other missions like Afghanistan you say? Sure Bill, you gave the terror threat a lot of attention.
This is an insult to good taste and reason. Stuff a sock in it Bill. You and Carter will both go down in history as losers.
Red6
However, Bill Clinton felt it was necessary to launch missiles at Iraq when the news of Monica Lewinski was breaking...
Either that, or he's actively campaigning for Kofi's job.
Are we the first nation in the history of the world to have ever elected a psychopath into office twice?
"Are we seeing the Carterization of Clinton?"
Where is old Jimmeh, anyway?
No, this is another thing to be put down next to "I didn't inhale" and "I did not have ... "
You may be right about that!
Clinton is a real DICK
What you are seeing is his trying to get in on the act . He thinks Bush is reeling from the hurricane and wants part of the spotlight
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