Subscribe to our BlogClinton Weighs in on Iraq War
Former President Clinton says Excerpt from Bloomberg News
The conflict particularly has strained the U.S. effort in Afghanistan and the search for al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, Clinton said in an interview in New York.
"It's kind of taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and the hunt for bin Laden and also reduced our manpower and resources available for that purpose,'' Clinton, 60, said.
While Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a menace, he said, the bigger threat was and still is from terrorist groups.
"Saddam Hussein was a very bad guy,'' Clinton said. Still, ``even the Republicans have said he was hostile to al-Qaeda in Iraq and had nothing to do with 9/11, nothing to do with terrorist groups."
Read Full Story from Bloomberg News
Comments
President Clinton did a great job of using his anger and being offended to deflect scrutiny of what happened (or didn't happen) during his administration. Honest evaluation of how Al-Aqeida got into a position where it could attack our Soldiers in Mogadishu in 1993, or attack our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or attack the USS Cole in Yemen, or the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11 is a result of the legacy of the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations. During those 20 years, we clearly demonstrated our willingness to put up only a token response to Middle Eastern terrorist attacks. From the botched response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis during the Carter Administration to the failure of the Reagan doctrine in Lebanon in 1982-83, to the inept cruise missile strike of the Clinton Administration in retaliation for the embassy bombings in Africa -- There is plenty of blame to go around, Mr. President. You shouted and pouted that you did more than anyone else to kill Bin-Laden, but you know what, like the rest of your policies in the Middle East, you failed. One week after the embassy bombings, you launched an ineffective cruise missile strike, and then, one week after the missile strike and your public statements making Bin-Laden public enemy number one, you froze his assets in the United States --- Mr. President, why the week's delay? Were you waiting perhaps for a campaign contribution?
- Mike H.
Posted by: Mike H. | September 28, 2006 9:17 PM