Clinton: 'We must act now' [Unilaterally, if need be]

BBC ^ | Thursday, March 25, 1999

[JohnHuang2]

ping...

[ez]

''I have concluded that the dangers of acting now are clearly outweighed by the risks of failing to act,'' he added.

Did Kosovo represent an imminenet danger to the United States?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Legacy bump

[JohnHuang2]

I posted this as a reply on another thread:

Prevent? Wait a minute: You don't mean (GASP!) pre-emptive military action, do you? If pre-emption is wrong for Bush to wage, why was it hanky-dorey for Clinton? Or do I sense a double standard? And where was the smoking gun? Does anyone recall a smoking gun here to justify an unprovoked attack on Serbia? I sure as heck don't.

Gee, and don't the Chris Matthews of the world insist that launching war against a country which has never attacked us is wrong? Against American tradition? Why was chickenhawk Matthews so gung-ho on waging war on Serbia, then?

Clinton's war on Serbia, it turns out, DID NOT have U.N. approval. Libs -- so long as Clinton was in the White House -- insisted the U.S. didn't need the blessing of the U.N. to legitimize military action. The U.S., yes, could 'Go-It-Alone'. But now that there's a Republican in the White House, my, my, how things have changed. Now they argue Bush needs absolute, EXPLICIT U.N. approval, or else military action is illegitimate. The U.S. must not 'Go-It-Alone', you see.

[JohnHuang2]

Hell no.

[Mudboy Slim]

RE-IMPEACH the TRUE Butcher of the Balkans!!

FReegards...MUD

[JohnHuang2]

Morning, hermano

[Mudboy Slim]

Snowy FReegards from Richmond, my FRiend...MUD

[JohnHuang2]

Sixty-degree weather here in sunny S. Florida ... hehe

[A Citizen Reporter]

Quick, send this to Helen Thomas! She is becoming increasingly shrill as each day goes by, and monopolizing more of Ari's press conference.

[cardinal4]

Last night I caught some of the Larry king show with his sinkness on. My only impression after watching it was, "This man is a psycopath. He is completely devoid of conscience." It also seemed he was on something.

[Libloather]

''I have concluded that the dangers of acting now are clearly outweighed by the risks of failing to act,'' he added.

And not one peep from Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Susan Sarandon, Dustin Hoffman, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, or Sean Penn.

[JohnHuang2]

I had eaten supper too soon before the show, so I didn't watch.

[JohnHuang2]

And not one peep from Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Susan Sarandon, Dustin Hoffman, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, or Sean Penn.

They were all FOR waging unilateral military action back then...hmmm...let's see...could it have had anything to do with the fact that....nah!

[cardinal4]

I had eaten supper too soon before the show, so I didn't watch.

Well, then its just as well you didnt watch it then; supper would been returned to sender.

[Semper Paratus]

MR. LEHRER: Well, let's keep -- let's stay on the

subject for a moment. New question, related to this.

There have been -- I figured this out. In the last 20

years, there have been eight major actions involving

the introduction of U.S. ground, air or naval forces.

Let me name them: Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the

Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo If you

had been president, are any of those interventions --

would any of those interventions not have happened?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Hmm. Can you run

through the list again?

MR. LEHRER: Sure. Lebanon?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I thought that was a

mistake.

MR. LEHRER: Grenada?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I supported that.

MR. LEHRER: Panama?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I supported that one.

MR. LEHRER: Persian Gulf?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Yes, I voted for it,

supported it.

MR. LEHRER: Somalia?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Well, of course in -- that,

again -- no, I think that that was ill considered. I did

support it at the time. It was in the previous

administration, in the Bush-Quayle administration.

And I think in retrospect, the lessons there are ones

that we -- that we should take very, very seriously.

MR. LEHRER: Bosnia?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Oh, yes.

MR. LEHRER: Haiti?

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Yes.

MR. LEHRER: And then Kosovo

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Yes.

[Mudboy Slim]

Yes, but I'm home from work with a snow day...LOL!!

[JohnHuang2]

It was in the previous administration, in the Bush-Quayle administration.

Filthy liar: The pull-out of U.S. forces from Somalia was in October of '93. Last time I checked, the Bush-Quayle administration ended 10 months previously.

[JohnHuang2]

The liar comment was, of course, addressed to Gore.

[Semper Paratus]

Gore and Bush on Sadaam
LEHRER: People watching here tonight very interested in Middle East policy. And they're so interested that they want to make a -- they want to base their vote on differences between the two of you as president, how you would handle Middle East policy. Is there any difference?

GORE: I haven't heard a big difference right -- in the last few exchanges.

BUSH: Well, I think -- it's hard to tell. I think that, you know, I would hope to be able to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better. I mean, we don't...

LEHRER: Saddam Hussein, you mean?

BUSH: Yes.

LEHRER: You could get him out of there?

BUSH: I'd like to, of course. And I presume this administration would as well. But we don't know. There's no inspectors now in Iraq. The coalition that was in place isn't as strong as it used to be.

He is a danger.

BUSH: We don't want him fishing in troubled waters in the Middle East. And it's going to be hard to -- it's going to be important to rebuild that coalition to keep the pressure on him.

LEHRER: Do you feel that is a failure of the Clinton administration?

BUSH: I do.

LEHRER: Mr. Vice President?

GORE: Well, when I got to be a part of the current administration, it was right after I was one of the few members of my political party to support former President Bush in the Persian Gulf War resolution.

And at the end of that war, for whatever reasons, it was not finished in a way that removed Saddam Hussein from power. I know there are all kinds of circumstances and explanations. But the fact is that that's the situation that was left when I got there. And we have maintained the sanctions.

Now, I want to go further. I want to give robust support to the groups that are trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein. And I know there are allegations that they're too weak to do it, but that's what they said about the forces that were opposing Milosevic in Serbia.

And, you know, the policy of enforcing sanctions against Serbia has just resulted in a spectacular victory for democracy just in the past week. And it seems to me that, having taken so long to see the sanctions work there, building upon the policy of containment that was successful over a much longer period of time against the former Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc, it seems a little early to declare that we should give up on the sanctions.

GORE: I know the governor's not necessarily saying that. But, you know, all of these flights that have come in? All of them have been in accordance with the sanctions regime, I'm told, except for three where they notified. And they're trying to break out of the box, there's no question about it. I don't think they should be allowed to.

LEHRER: Are you -- did he correct you -- did he state your position correctly? You're not calling for eliminating the sanctions, are you?

BUSH: No, of course not. Absolutely not. I want them to be tougher.