Andrew Sullivan: The damage Clinton did

The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 09/30/2001 | Andrew Sullivan

[garbanzo]

I understand your frustration. Personally, I'm beginning to have some more respect for Ferdinand and Isabella. Perhaps after the Cold War ended, we needed an Inquisition of sorts to root out the communist sympathizers in the media and academia.

[livius]

Agreed! This is one of the most coherent, least hysterical and most accurate analyses I have seen of Bill C's approach to - well, everything. Personally, however, I think he should be up on charges of treason; a lot of his neglect of our business was motivated by his chaotic personal life, but I also have a suspicion that he was not totally convinced of the worth of the American project to start with. And his wife, of course, has hated it all along, and probably still does - although I suspect that even she was a little shocked when her chickens came home to roost.

[TKEman]

I personally will never give up the fight for my country, and I hope you don't either. I can't move to the Moon. Yet.

[Brian Allen]

I reckon Dubya's already: -- in either not recognizing the Enemy or, if he did, instantly going into denial about what and who the enemy is: -- made the biggest possible "mistake."

[MHGinTN]

Amelia, even further, to know clinton is to a measurable extent responsible for the feckless state of our national readiness/alert, and to know that the criminal enterprise democrat party saw it more to their gain than our loss to defend him at all cost while declaring his perfidy indefensible reveals something very troubling ... as a nation, we have buried our collective heads in the sand in hopes that the bad guys will go away when our military rattles the saber. They can't, there are too many of them right here amongst US and they're not all foreigners, if you get my drift.

[ninenot]

Sullivan is conservative first and gay second. He has never failed to point out stupidity--and there's plenty of it in Gummint. His homosexual orientation has never seemed to interfere with his point of view on politics or global issues. OTOH, I am not ready to wholly endorse American military presence all over the world. Not sure that Sullivan does so, but 'globocop' enthusiasts are rather eager to find places for MY children to die, needful or not.

[beckett]

When a senior Clinton official can say of his own leader that he "spent less concentrated attention on national defence than any other president in recent memory", and when this administration is followed by the most grievous breach of domestic security in American history, it is not unreasonable to demand some accounting.

Part of the reason Clinton spent so little attention on national defense was the low esteem the national defense establishment had for him. He was hated by the Armed Forces and he knew it. Naturally, since Clinton is nothing if not petty and vindictive, he took great satisfaction in neglecting those who hated him.

So a clear line can be drawn from his cowardly draft dodging thirty years ago to the flights of four hijacked jet airliners on Sept. 11, 2001.

[LarryLied]

Thanks to both of you for giving me the benefit of the doubt. Think we all feel much the same way. Thank Gawd for this forum in which I can hint (and that is all I have done) about how I really feel.

Btw...I protested Nam at the end. Great venues to bring dates. Lots of fun. Lots of dope. Only years later did I realize what I had done.

The time to stop this is here. Take the fallout. End it. It will save lives.

[ninenot]

I hope I live long enough to see clinton indicted for TREASON

And I, dear sir, hope to live long enough to witness his execution for same.

[P-Marlowe]

Some people hate homos more than they hate terrorists. Maybe if we convinced these guys that bin Laden was a homo.... Nah, they hate American homos first.

[Torie]

I don't want you folks to miss this one. It is a keeper. Beyond the substance, the prose approaches poetry in places. And thanks jwal for bringing it to my attention. I should have expressed that sentiment earlier. I can't imagine why you thought it might interest me. :)

[desertcry]

To America: A designer poison pill from the bent one, and the bitchwitch. This evil pair sure knows how to rub it in during the days of national mourning, thier hideous faces were all over the tube. This couple hate this country so much the bitchwitch could not even hide her feelings during President GWB's address to Congress. The terrorists aped the clinton's MO: frying thier victims in thier own oil.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Throughout the Clinton years, this kind of attack was not only predictable but predicted. Not only had Bin Laden already attacked American embassies and warships, he had done so repeatedly and been completely frank about his war. He had even attempted to destroy the World Trade Center in 1993. Same guy, same building. To say that nobody could have anticipated this type of attack is simply to say that US intelligence wasn't good enough to have found it out.

Absolutely right. For eight years, Clinton made no serious effort to counter the growing threat of terrorism. On the contrary, he emboldened the terrorists by responding to terrorist acts with political grandstanding in the form of missile strikes against aspirin factories in Sudan - more comic relief than deterrent. Even worse, he used our military and risked American lives to launch diversionary air strikes against Iraq during the impeachment vote in Congress. While the house was voting in each article of impeachment, CNN showed a split screen, with one side showing the bombing of Iraq as the House voted on impeachment. When Bin Laden's terrorists attacked the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, Clinton vowed to "leave no stone unturned" in hunting down the perpetrators. But in reality, he did nothing.

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for posting this, Sullivan does an excellent job of marshalling the facts, and then explaining in clear English what they add up to, I, too, don't care if he "makes love to race horses," this is a clear, able, and damning report."

The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob,
cyberCongressman from Western Carolina

Click here for Billybob's latest, "Bush is DEAD Wrong.

Click here and go to "ALCU Watch" for "The Law of War," a detailed legal discussion of how the US declares war, both historically and in this instance.

[beckett]

Sullivan did his PhD dissertation on Michael Oakeshott. He was one of the last people to interview the great philosopher before his death. It is not accurate to claim that Sullivan's "real interest" is gay activism. His real interest is politics and writing about politics, and his political instincts and philosophy, like Oakeshott's, are mostly right of center.

[desertcry]

He was not elected by the majority, you can thank perot, and the media for the fruits of the last 8 years.

[tillacum]

Thank you Pokey. WOWEEEEEE

[beckett]

Nicely put.

[beckett]

He was once a Deputy Secretary of Defense for Clinton before he became CIA Director. But you're right of course. Sullivan misidentifies him as Secretary.