Posted on 08/15/2006 6:25:04 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
Q Tony, former President Clinton told ABC News in an interview there this morning that, "While I don't think the foiling of that London bomb plot has any bearing on our Iraq policy, they seem anxious to tie to al Qaeda. If that's true, how come we've got seven times as many troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan? Why is the administration and congressional leadership consistently opposed to adequate checks on cargo containers in ports and airports? I think Republicans should be very careful in trying to play politics on the airport thing -- "
MR. SNOW: Can you hand me that quote when you're done, because I think this one needs some parsing. So you hand that to me, and we will deconstruct, all right? (Laughter.) You have it marked up for me?
Q The bottom of the first --
MR. SNOW: Okay, "I don't think the foiling of the London bomb plot has any bearing on our Iraq policy." Fair enough. "They seem to be anxious to tie it to al Qaeda." I think Bill Plante will tell you that's not true.
Q Well, I don't know that it's not true. I only know what you told me. (Laughter.)
MR. SNOW: Well, I'm telling you the truth. But the fact is, as a public matter, we haven't done it, which leads to a series, therefore, of non sequiturs that are tied to a fallacious premise. The fact is that --
Q Oooh --
MR. SNOW: Well, it is. I'm sorry, but go take a logic class.
Q We're in it. (Laughter.)
MR. SNOW: Exactly. (Laughter.) But I'll tell you what -- for instance, containers. There have been considerable efforts -- and the President continues and he was briefed on this today -- on ways to ensure container safety. The best way to ensure container safety is to ensure at the point of origin. And that's one of the things this government has been very busy doing, is trying to make sure containers, when they leave, are safe and, furthermore, that you have ways of tagging those containers to make sure that they haven't been tampered with on the journey.
So President Clinton, I know, is sort of committing some politics here and accusing Republicans in so doing. But I'll tell you what. I think in the same position he'd be looking at the same options. And I think he would be ordering his people to be every bit as nimble, too, because as a former President he knows how serious this is. And so I appreciate the comment, because it gave me an opportunity to read right off this here transcript -- (laughter.) All right, thank you. Well, I'll keep it as a treasured memento. But it's a bit beside the point.
Q What about his point, though, that in devoting seven times as many troops to Iraq as in Afghanistan, we're not spending enough resources to go after al Qaeda, which is presumably in Afghanistan --
MR. SNOW: Well, among other things, he doesn't know what we're doing to go after al Qaeda. Period. He doesn't know. We're not broadcasting it. We're not going to tell anybody. The other thing is, President Clinton is probably aware of the fact that if you're going to fight an effective war on terror, you don't fight it alone. The Pakistanis have been very helpful on a number of occasions. And the notion that the United States, in and of itself, ought to be winning all the wars is something that we haven't tried to do. The President has assembled not only some of the largest coalitions ever in Iraq, in Afghanistan, but in the war on terror even larger coalitions trying to get people to work together so that the United States doesn't have to expend itself and extend itself everywhere.
So the fact is you have a government in Afghanistan that is standing up and trying to extend its control. And, also, if you take a look at the map of Afghanistan and the troops there, I believe we have nine different countries now that are contributing troops and working throughout the region. And that's a perfect example of the kind of phenomenon I'm talking about. One of the reasons we're doing it is we've got help in Afghanistan. One of reasons we remain committed in Iraq is that we, as the Iraqi people do, understand that there is an attempt there to foil democracy. You heard it a little bit today in some of the talk out of Tehran and also Damascus, where there was crowing about foiling what people were trying to do, which is create democracy. That is one of the reasons why Iraq remains absolutely fundamental, and we're committed to making sure that democracy succeeds.
Excellent briefing by Snow. Two points I'd like to make. The Democrat's so-called concern for domestic security, via ports and containers, etc., has nothing to do with security; it's all about constituency.
Just like the original debate over airline security, the Democrats want to use the terrorist threat to line the pockets of their union pay-masters by expanding the "government" payroll, with generally less than competent people. See what happens if and when Republicans decide to offer these jobs to private sector employees.
Secondly, the issue about Bush not forging appropriate alliances or coalitions with our partners...or alienating our traditional allies (ie France), is nonsence. What Democrats and much of the media ignore is that Bush has formed much more important alliances with many non-traditional nations.
France and Germany may be on the fringes...but in their place, Bush has forged relationships with many other nations like Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, etc. In fact, Bush and Rice have worked hard with many of the former Soviet satellites...which when viewed from a geographical perspective, shows just how important these new alliances will be, if and when we decide to take on Iran. With our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran is being slowly enveloped, as Bush builds more important coalitions with Iran's neighbors.
That's a great point. Clinton didn't even know about Al-Qaeda when he was in a position to the most...how in the hell would he know anything, now. This is a guy who met with his mistress on more ocassions than he did his CIA director...literally.
"Q How much beefing up is there that needs to be done? Is this a series issue? Are there -- you've got to plan -- is there tweaking that needs to be done?"
This briefing is being replayed on cspan2 now.
Clinton has to stay in his trench until the UN troops get there
In the middle of the night a bunch of Ninjas would repel from Black Helicopters into Bin Ladin's Al Queda training camp and scare the Bejeebes out of Bin Ladin and his crew and then leave without hurting anyone.
I absolutley despise that lying, self-serving, egotistical, sociopathic, camera-hogging, media-whoring, treasonous, me-me-me Bill Clinton!
But, I understate....
I thought I heard a while back that CLinton lost his license for being dishonest and not answering a question truthfully while he was under oath. A decision was made by a court of law that he in fact was lying in his testimony. Or was that just a nasty rumor from the vast right wing conspiracy?
If you asked him to write a will for you, I bet he couldn't do it.
Oh I love that great big winky face!!!
Tony Snow on Brian and The Judge now!!
Thanks, but I missed it.
That's ok, it was very short! Didn't miss much.
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