Clinton realized that he was going to have to start Gulf War II and needed a lot of time since he had been defecating on the military since his inauguration. When by chance luck the OKC bombing was improving his favorability - he decided that retaliation could wait and rode the wave of domestic terrorism/right wing nut theories which turned out to be the best thing to happen to his presidency. Until Newt G. Then when we had the time to think about a response - he was too deep in the lie to get himself out. So he decided to go after middle east "peace" - aka bribing off PLO and Israel into a pseudo peace treaty. Too bad it failed - He needed this as his excuse for not hitting Iraq after OKC but notice he did do a mini-iraq-attack as part of his war of distractions. Might have made him feel somewhat better - but not much since this weasel does not really have a conscience.
It must be mind-bendingly complex to decide if this is a hot war or a cold war or what the right mix of the two is and what are the risks that the mix could explode in your face. George Bush and Condi Rice literally hold the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in their hands.