In defense of Clinton

I thought the pocket analysis relatively 'fair' - though one has to ask (as did many respondents) - if the idea of fixing the blame (on a one or on the many) - isn't just too inane for words. Some samples:

What about the culpability of the
Republican Congress that held the Clinton
presidency, effective governance and the
American public hostage via the ill founded
impeachment proceedings?

When will the Clinton haters give it up?
The seeds were sown for today's situation
when Reagan went on TV talking tough and
did nothing about the terrorist acts during
his administration. The US was then
perceived as all talk and no action. Then
Bush 1 stopped short of getting part of the
job done in Iraq. I hope Bush 2 has learned
from these mistakes.

Blame is an excuse for not having a crystal
ball.

These "analysts" lead you away from the
real truth--Bin Laden is a power freak. He
was rich all his life and convinced himself
that he has a birthright to lead or control
Saudia Arabia. He wants the oil and the
power of being the most strategic player in
the Middle East when he gets control of
over 50% of the worlds oil. I hear analysts
talking all the time about terror and Islam.
Those are only the means he is using to get
to his end. In the WTC case he may have
screwed the pooch though. Now everyone is
out to kill him and he's sunk--he should be
killed. Had he stayed the course he was on
which was picking on small American
outposts like Somalia and Tanzania and a
few American bases he would have gotten
an Army of maybe 500,000 Islamic crazies
together who would have rolled over the
weakneed monarchy who rule Saudia
Arabia. They wouldn't have stood a chance
against this guy and what could we have
done (it would be a civil war or local fight
and none of our business). Actually, we
would probably have sent troops to make
sure the Saudia oilfields would be secure
but thats speculation. Bin Laden wants
what Hitler wanted domination of the
MidEast and its oil.
Any other analysis is a waste of time.
Well, he's screwed now--the WTC crashes
were great theater for his Islamic crazies
but American history shows that we put up
small doses of criminal behavior like car
bombs, etc but he aint going to get away
with this one. No President would be
compared in history to letting this guy
escape--he will be hunted for years. I
compare Bin Laden to Geronimo the Apache
Chief. The Army took two decades of
hunting him but in the end he and his
henchmen landed in prison thousands of
miles from their reservation. One would
hope that a FEMALE team of Army Rangers
would capture Bin Laden and in front of
CNN's TV cameras on primetime cut off ALL
his Manly Parts. What justice that would
be--he lives as a modified male for the rest
of his days.

Anyway.. I hope this little exercise might be enough to dispense with blame-fixing, at least among the lofty inhabitants of These parts! Hell, one nicely laid the beginnings to: the failure to deal with slavery; to really *mean* ALL people are citizens - leading to half a million or so, Civil War deaths.. a bit later.

A.

Post #13,180 by marlowe 10/12/01 6:13:30 PM Reply	In defense of Clinton Jacob Weisberg asks [link\|http://slate.msn.com/code/BallotBox/BallotBox.asp?Show=10/11/2001&idMessage=8422\|Could he have done better?] Excerpt: On balance, I'd say that before 1998, the Clinton administration was negligent about Osama Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and the threat from terrorism generally. But so were lots of others, including almost all of those blaming Clinton now. And there's no way to prove that a higher level of concern would have been substantially likely to prevent or mitigate what happened on Sept. 11. Clinton could have done more. But whether it would have made any difference, no one can really say. [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
Post #13,184 by Ashton 10/12/01 7:23:39 PM Reply	Heh.. you should have looked at some of the replies, too I thought the pocket analysis relatively 'fair' - though one has to ask (as did many respondents) - if the idea of fixing the blame (on a one or on the many) - isn't just too inane for words. Some samples: What about the culpability of the Republican Congress that held the Clinton presidency, effective governance and the American public hostage via the ill founded impeachment proceedings? When will the Clinton haters give it up? The seeds were sown for today's situation when Reagan went on TV talking tough and did nothing about the terrorist acts during his administration. The US was then perceived as all talk and no action. Then Bush 1 stopped short of getting part of the job done in Iraq. I hope Bush 2 has learned from these mistakes. Blame is an excuse for not having a crystal ball. These "analysts" lead you away from the real truth--Bin Laden is a power freak. He was rich all his life and convinced himself that he has a birthright to lead or control Saudia Arabia. He wants the oil and the power of being the most strategic player in the Middle East when he gets control of over 50% of the worlds oil. I hear analysts talking all the time about terror and Islam. Those are only the means he is using to get to his end. In the WTC case he may have screwed the pooch though. Now everyone is out to kill him and he's sunk--he should be killed. Had he stayed the course he was on which was picking on small American outposts like Somalia and Tanzania and a few American bases he would have gotten an Army of maybe 500,000 Islamic crazies together who would have rolled over the weakneed monarchy who rule Saudia Arabia. They wouldn't have stood a chance against this guy and what could we have done (it would be a civil war or local fight and none of our business). Actually, we would probably have sent troops to make sure the Saudia oilfields would be secure but thats speculation. Bin Laden wants what Hitler wanted domination of the MidEast and its oil. Any other analysis is a waste of time. Well, he's screwed now--the WTC crashes were great theater for his Islamic crazies but American history shows that we put up small doses of criminal behavior like car bombs, etc but he aint going to get away with this one. No President would be compared in history to letting this guy escape--he will be hunted for years. I compare Bin Laden to Geronimo the Apache Chief. The Army took two decades of hunting him but in the end he and his henchmen landed in prison thousands of miles from their reservation. One would hope that a FEMALE team of Army Rangers would capture Bin Laden and in front of CNN's TV cameras on primetime cut off ALL his Manly Parts. What justice that would be--he lives as a modified male for the rest of his days. Anyway.. I hope this little exercise might be enough to dispense with blame-fixing, at least among the lofty inhabitants of These parts! Hell, one nicely laid the beginnings to: the failure to deal with slavery; to really mean ALL people are citizens - leading to half a million or so, Civil War deaths.. a bit later. A.
Post #13,185 by wharris2 10/12/01 7:26:14 PM Reply	Could have done more, should have done less Random bombings of rumored targets sure didn't endear him to Arab enemies. Not that this caused the bombings, but they didn't help anti-American sentiment. The bombing of the Cole, on the other hand, probably should have been met with some more effective response other than hand-wringing and whining about "please hand over the perpetrators to us". Oh well, water under the bridge. I'd maintain that the entire Clintonesque foreign policy had its part in the atmosphere that led up to the bombings. And Bush's first six months in office didn't help a lot; lots of things could have been done, but weren't. Who knows how empty the sky is In the place of a fallen tower. Who knows how quiet it is in the home Where a son has not returned. -- Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Post #13,189 by Ashton 10/12/01 7:45:13 PM Reply	Nope: Adam, Eve and the first Rush. (and wharris1)

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