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."
At first,I thought Bush had made a smart move to give little willie some of the limelight he desperately craves in exchange for keeping quiet,but apparently little willie is grabbing for all he can.
When is this idiot going to shut up? Oh let me see, Bush Sr. is going to prance him around some more. The sex offender Clinton is scumbag.
This will definately do.
Surely This Week brought Clinton on to talk about his great work in collecting money for Katrina Aid.
He has no explanations of why he use a million dollar bomb to blow up a 10 dollar tent in the desert.
There has been a below the surface, below the radar screen effort by some to make BJ clinton a supreme court pick. I've heard rumblings of this here and there including on NPR as well as on FR (some deluded freeper made this proposal).
One can't help but wondering based on the intensity of the clinton attacks on Bush fairly recently whether the message has been sent to clinton that the answer is not only NO but HELL NO, and it would be completely in character for clinton to "lash out" at his "enemies" which has been a character trait that quintessentially clinton.
Just a thought.
Chicken shit.... Clinton is plain ol chicken shit.
Bill sent warplanes to kill people to get Monica Lewinsky off the front page. The presstitutes complied.
AND:
Text Of Clinton Statement On Iraq. February 17, 1998
EXCERPTS from Clinton's speech. This is exactly what Clinton SAID. Note, that he is calling it a CRISIS back in 1998:
====
We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century. They feed on the free flow of information and technology. They actually take advantage of the freer movement of people, information and ideas.
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. We simply cannot allow that to happen.
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.
I want the American people to understand first the past how did this crisis come about?
......
Now, let's imagine the future. What if he fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made?
Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.
And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal. And I think every one of you who's really worked on this for any length of time believes that, too.
Saddam Hussein's Iraq reminds us of what we learned in the 20th century and warns us of what we must know about the 21st. In this century, we learned through harsh experience that the only answer to aggression and illegal behavior is firmness, determination, and when necessary action.
In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more the very kind of threat Iraq poses now a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.
If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program.
But if we act as one, we can safeguard our interests and send a clear message to every would-be tyrant and terrorist that the international community does have the wisdom and the will and the way to protect peace and security in a new era. That is the future I ask you all to imagine. That is the future I ask our allies to imagine.
Clinton first linked al Qaeda to Saddam
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Clinton administration talked about firm evidence linking Saddam Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network years before President Bush made the same statements.
The issue arose again this month after the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reported there was no "collaborative relationship" between the old Iraqi regime and bin Laden.
Democrats have cited the staff report to accuse Mr. Bush of making inaccurate statements about a linkage. Commission members, including a Democrat and two Republicans, quickly came to the administration's defense by saying there had been such contacts.
In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were at least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between Baghdad and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's defense secretary. He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
Mr. Bush cited the linkage, in part, to justify invading Iraq and ousting Saddam. He said he could not take the risk of Iraq's weapons falling into bin Laden's hands.
The other pronouncement is contained in a Justice Department indictment on Nov. 4, 1998, charging bin Laden with murder in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
The indictment disclosed a close relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam's regime, which included specialists on chemical weapons and all types of bombs, including truck bombs, a favorite weapon of terrorists.
The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq."
Shortly after the embassy bombings, Mr. Clinton ordered air strikes on al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and on the Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.
To justify the Sudanese plant as a target, Clinton aides said it was involved in the production of deadly VX nerve gas. Officials further determined that bin Laden owned a stake in the operation and that its manager had traveled to Baghdad to learn bomb-making techniques from Saddam's weapons scientists.
Mr. Cohen elaborated in March in testimony before the September 11 commission.
He testified that "bin Laden had been living [at the plant], that he had, in fact, money that he had put into this military industrial corporation, that the owner of the plant had traveled to Baghdad to meet with the father of the VX program."
He said that if the plant had been allowed to produce VX that was used to kill thousands of Americans, people would have asked him, " 'You had a manager that went to Baghdad; you had Osama bin Laden, who had funded, at least the corporation, and you had traces of [VX precursor] and you did what? And you did nothing?' Is that a responsible activity on the part of the secretary of defense?"
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040624-112921-3401r.htm
The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq." http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040624-112921-3401r.htm
I just read this quote online and thought it SO appropriate:
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
- Dante
Clinton is a no-class ass.
Hear hear!
It appears he is still looking for a legitimate legacy.
With this writing,I have given too much time to this post.
Rock On President Bush, Rock On!!!!!!
"Can someone tell me why we should pay ANY attention to this boob?? "
We should pay attention because (alas) other people are paying attention. It's always good to know what you are up against.
You nailed it !!!!!!!!
Very strange that he comes out with this just at a time when it appears that we are bringing things under control.
I guess the only explanation is that he wants us to lose. While we were losing, he was in favor of it. Now that we are winning, he wants us to surrender.
My disdain for the Clinton years just grows and grows.
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