Posted on 09/18/2005 2:48:44 PM PDT by wallcrawlr
Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.
Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."
The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" programme.
Clinton said there had been a "heroic but so far unsuccessful" effort to put together an constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq.
The US strategy of trying to develop the Iraqi military and police so that they can cope without US support "I think is the best strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that," said Clinton.
On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29.
People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind.
"If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out," Clinton.
He agreed that some responsibility for this lay with the local and state authorities, but pointed the finger, without naming him, at the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
FEMA boss Michael Brown quit in response to criticism of his handling of the Katrina disaster. He was viewed as a political appointee with no experience of disaster management or dealing with government officials.
"When James Lee Witt ran FEMA, because he had been both a local official and a federal official, he was always there early, and we always thought about that," Clinton said, referring to FEMA's head during his 1993-2001 presidency.
"But both of us came out of environments with a disproportionate number of poor people."
On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme and tax cuts that benefitted just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included.
"What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," he said.
"We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else."
Clinton added: "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense."
There have been fewer terrorist incidents in this country in W's term than Clintoons.
Hey, Willie: STFU.
"'If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out,' Clinton (said)."
Nope.Arrogance....hubris....amorality.
When will any of the Bush's ever get it? One does not let a scorpion into one's house, and not expect to be stung.
Say what, Bubba?
Bravo for lesson learned! Now maybe everyone in the Bush family will figure out you can't sleep with a snake.
Really??? Did Bush say that?
there are still some hurricane Floyd victums in eastern North Carolina waiting for James Lee DimWitt to show up
Klin-ton was always too worried about his image and his legacy to do whatever was right for our country. Just like ANY LIBERAL their image and power came first, NOT the country. Small wonder the HARD PART was left to Bush.
can't we just stipulate that William Jefferson Blythe Clinton was born trash and will die trash? No intervening honors or offices will ameliorate that simple fact.
Ditto!
Please someone do two things...1) Tie this TREASONOUS BA$TARD DOWN and read him the following...
TERROR ALERT WKS. BEFORE COLE ATTACK (Able Danger)
NY Post ^ | 9/17/05 | Niles Lathem Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda "activity" in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned. In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S. warship that killed 17 sailors.
But OHHHHH...would I pay BIG MONEY to be the one to do it....
He misses the sink.
And the cigars.
If there is anything we can count on is Bush not responding.
Bush reaches across the aisle to Kennedy. Kennedy blasts him.
Bush reaches across the aisle to the Clintons. Both Clintons blast him.
The next time Bush reaches across the aisle, it'd better be to slap a Democrat behind the frickin' HEAD.
You know what this means, don't you? It means that someone is getting close to revealing negative info about one or both of the Clintons, maybe even an indictment! The best defense is a good offense.
Really.
It seems like the Bush family is determined to associate/be associated with him.
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