Wag the Dog arose because of the fact that Clinton bombed the aspirin factory the night before scheduled impeachment vote. The other bombing was in response Iraq's attempt on Geo. H.W. Bush's life when B41 was in Kuwait for a victory lap.
How did Iraq attempt this assassination?
You've got it right and the contention of the initial post is (partly) wrong.
I applaud the poster for catching Clinton's defensive use of the "wag the dog" line. But the context wasn't the bombing of Serbia. Clinton bombed Sudan and Afghanistan just 3 days after his grand jury testimony and admission to the affair with Lewinsky. [When he was reportedly "sleeping on the sofa" at the family vacation home on Martha's Vineyard----gee! Suddenly he needs to get back to Washington fast so he can bomb Sudan!] There were charges of wag the dog, not because his opponents didn't think he should do anything about al queda. Their question was "why now?" after years of doing nothing? And the attacks seemed unserious.
This is from Wikipedia:
"Over the course of 1998 and early 1999, as the scandal dominated American politics, the US engaged in three military options: Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign in Iraq that took place as the U.S. House of Representatives debated articles of impeachment against Clinton; Operation Infinite Reach, a pair of missile strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan just three days after Clinton admitted in a nationally televised address that he had an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky; and Operation Allied Force, a months-long NATO bombing campaign against Serbia that began just weeks after Clinton was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial."
The Serbia campaign was March-June, 1999---long after the media had declared Clinton the "victor" in the impeachement battle. He may have had ulterior motives for the Serb bombing, but I think it had more to do with AVOIDING using ground forces.
The wag the dog issues surrounded both the missile strike against Iraq and the aspirin factory bombing.
Correct and I believe the term Wag the Dog was also used when he launched a multiple day attack of Cruise missles against Iraq on the days Monica was testifying and the missle launches ended on the day her testimony ended .
Correct and I believe the term Wag the Dog was also used when he launched a multiple day attack of Cruise missles against Iraq on the days Monica was testifying and the missle launches ended on the day her testimony ended .