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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBill Clinton and Iraq
http://articles.cnn.com/2004-06-19/us/clinton.iraq_1_weapons-inspectors-iraq-war-iraq-thing?_s=PM:USClinton defends successor's push for war
June 23, 2004
Former President Clinton has revealed that he continues to support President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq but chastised the administration over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," Clinton said in a Time magazine interview that will hit newsstands Monday, a day before the publication of his book "My Life."
Clinton, who was interviewed Thursday, said he did not believe that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil or for imperialist reasons but out of a genuine belief that large quantities of weapons of mass destruction remained unaccounted for.
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http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Bill_Clinton_War_+_Peace.htm
Claims he opposed Iraq war from the beginning
Bill Clinton said he had opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning--a statement that raised eyebrows because he did not seem to take a strong public stance against the war when it started in 2003. “If he did, I don’t think most of us heard about it,” Barack Obama told reporters. [News reports said] Clinton had been briefed by top White House officials privately about war planning in 2003 and he told them he supported the invasion.
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http://www.mediamouse.org/news/2007/05/clintons-iraq-l.php
Clinton’s Iraq Legacy Questioned as he comes to Grand Rapids
Over the past two years, former President Bill Clinton has positioned himself as a liberal critic of the Iraq War. He has objected to the manner in which the war has been conducted, but has largely refrained from criticizing the entirety of the war or providing a more comprehensive analysis of US power in the Middle East. This is not surprising given that in 2004 while promoting his autobiography My Life, President Clinton defended President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq arguing that he has “repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq.” In a Time magazine interview in 2004, Clinton said that he “supported the Iraq thing” because of Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), although he would have preferred that the United States wait for the weapons inspection process to finish.
In 2005, President Clinton changed his position and argued that the United States made “a big mistake” when it invaded Iraq. Clinton criticized the post-war planning stating that the United States government “made several errors” in Iraq including a failure to anticipate “how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country.” Clinton argued that it was a mistake to “dismantle the whole authority structure of Iraq. …
---->When he speaks himself on the Iraq War or is interviewed and asked his thoughts on the war, Clinton is almost never challenged on his policy in Iraq, nor is there much discussion of Clinton’s Iraq policy. This is unfortunate, because much of the current policy towards Iraq had its origins in the administration of President Bill Clinton. During his eight years in the White House, President Clinton over saw an Iraq policy that killed over 350,000-500,000 children via sanctions, repeatedly bombed Iraq out of concern over WMD, and made regime change the official policy of the United States.<----
The most notable aspect of President Clinton’s Iraq policy was his maintenance of a sanctions regime that decimated Iraq’s economy and that was estimated to have killed 500,000 children. While the figures would later be disputed with lesser estimates of 350,000, their destructive impact is undeniable. Responding to concerns over the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children, Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would famously state “I think it is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.” Ordinary Iraqis reported significant hardship from the sanctions, while food and medicine were lacking and the economy crumbled. Scholars of United States foreign policy including Edward Said and Edward Herman described Clinton’s Iraq policy as a “war crime.” It must also be remembered that the sanctions came on top of the devastation of the first Gulf War.
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Whisp
(24,096 posts)thanks to short memories and false loyalties, you can hear it anxious and fidgety, scraping away in the dark - waiting.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)and seeing that people who supported that war, and more, are backing away and pretending something else and hoping people forget the truths, I think this is very appropriate.
It's a good thing we can go back and read these truths, I think.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)I thought that he had made new news and that I had missed it.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)www.factcheck.org/clark_waffles_on_iraq_war.html
Clark Waffles on Iraq War
December 4, 2003
Updated: January 19, 2004
General Clark says he's been "very, very clear" about opposing the U.S. war with Iraq, but earlier statements show otherwise.
Summary
In the October 9 debate on CNN, General Wesley Clark claimed his “position on Iraq has been very, very clear from the outset,” adding, “I fully supported taking the problem to the United Nations and dealing with it through the United Nations. I would never have voted for war."
But that doesn't square very well with what he said on earlier occasions. He said he supported a resolution authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq when Congress was about to vote on it, and he wrote that “President Bush and Tony Blair should be proud” as Saddam Hussein's statue was being toppled by American soldiers in Baghdad.
Analysis
Clark was emphatic in the Oct. 9 debate:
Clark: The answer is very clear. The answer is, I would have voted for a resolution that took the problem to the United Nations. I would not have voted for a resolution that would have taken us to war. It's that simple.
But What he said earlier was different:
October 9, 2002 One Year Earlier:
The Associated Press reported:
AP: Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark said Wednesday he supports a congressional resolution that would give President Bush authority to use military force against Iraq, although he has reservations about the country's move toward war.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)Hillary Clinton Defends 2002 Iraq War Vote On Meet The Press
This morning on Meet the Press, Hillary Clinton defended her 2002 vote for the Iraq war resolution, saying that she "thought it was a vote to put inspectors back in" so Saddam Hussein could not go unchecked. She insisted that she and others were "told by the White House personally" that this was the purpose of the resolution, and cited President Bush's assurances to defend her position.
Moderator Tim Russert pointed out that the title of the resolution was the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002." Clinton responded saying, "We can have this Jesuitical argument about what exactly was meant. But when Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution said, 'It was not a vote for war,' What I was told directly by the White House in response to my question, 'If you are given this authority, will you put the inspectors in and permit them to finish their job,' I was told that's exactly what we intended to do. "
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always someone else's fault.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)He set the stage for the war by saying stuff like all options are on the table, and by pretending Iraq was a threat to the US. He also softened up the target by enforcing cruelly harsh trade sanctions. Who remembers the "Oil for Food" program? The name says it all.
I have to wonder whether Mr. Obama is taking the same role toward Iran as Mr. Clinton took toward Iraq. He is keeping alive the myth of a threat, working to diplomatically isolate Iran, and softening up the target with economic sanctions.
These would be assisting steps for the next President to attack Iran.
