"Ten Years Ago, People Power Stopped Clinton in Iraq" (article)

[JackRiddler]

(...)

Unbelievably, on February 18 (1998) Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and national security advisor Sandy Berger visited Ohio State University for an internationally televised "town hall" meeting to warm up the country for a carpet bombing of Iraq.

CNN and the Clinton Administration joined hands to try to ensure peace and quiet. A university press release mandated that no cameras, banners or placards would be permitted in the arena. Purses and bags were searched and metal detectors were the order of the day. Outside, an armored personnel carrier was parked in an alley across the street.

Only a relative handful of carefully screened individuals were issued red or gray tickets and were allowed to ask questions at the "town hall". Even they were questioned as to what their question was and how they were going to ask it. CNN agreed that no one could bring notes to the microphone. The ushers included soldiers in uniform. Other uniformed soldiers were stationed in seats throughout the arena to cow anyone from challenging the presenters.

Jon Strange, a public school teacher, joined a handful of activists at Ohio State University in forming the Columbus Coalition for Democratic Foreign Policy to confront the "Three Musketeers". "Basically, there were sixteen to twenty groups -- mostly students -- involved in organizing it," said Sultane Salim, a Ohio State senior and president of the Muslim Student Association. Others, like former OSU student body president Rick Theis, had a Plan B.

(...)

MORE
http://www.counterpunch.org/simpich02182008.html

[JackRiddler]

1. don't just rec - kic!

[blm]

2. OK. Kand R

I have told folks here for years that Bill WOULD have bombed Iraq then if the allies would have joined him. It was the fact that no allies would participate that stopped him, as he didn't want to move alone on that drastic use of force.

Was Bill exaggerating intel at the time and why so many Dem senators trusted that there still MUST be something there that weapon inspections would uncover?

I believe that if Bill were more truthful regarding what he actually knew about Iraq, then fewer senators would have voted for IWR. I think the lying about Iraq started with PNAC and Bill helped push it along as he could.


And he sure used his 3 week book tour in 2004 to defend Bush in every interview on his Iraq war decisions. Nice timing, eh?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

[HeraldSquare212]

3. We certainly had a very aggressive bombing policy near the end of his administration.

Under the excuse of bombing radar centers that had fixed on allied planes, British and US planes bombed the hell out of everything remotely military in the no-fly zone. It really stepped up in the last few years of his presidency.

[JackRiddler]

4. Don't forget "Desert Fox" aka the impeachment bombings in Dec. 1998

Four days of punishing Iraq because, well, they had actually complied with the UN and destroyed their WMD facilities, as Scott Ritter makes clear, and the sanctions had lost their official justification. So the only option was escalation, right.

[blm]

11. We can see all this so clearly now because of revelations, why can't other Dems who are

determined to believe that Clintons are somehow the ONLY alternative we have to Bushes, when Clintons are proving to be their PARTNERS more than their adversaries.

[Redstone]

5. What the FUCK? Your source is absurdly dubious, and your motivation even more so.

Redstone

[JackRiddler]

6. That the FUCK. Your post is void of content and I doubt you read the article. nt

[JackRiddler]

7. The deal with it - this was the Clinton administration kick.

[Tom Joad]

8. I remember that. It was a beautiful sight. The fascist thugs that run this country

really were confronted.

[JackRiddler]

9. One more kick

[ShortnFiery]

10. IMO, just stopping The Executive Branch Bush/Clinton turnstile will do wonders for the functioning

of our Democratic Republic. Obama is a gifted LEADER and will bring in qualified people who are not part of The Clintonian DLC. Having fewer "old guard" insiders in The Executive Branch will be one excellent FIRST STEP. :shrug: