Bill Clinton is Angry - and so am I Posted by Shadi Hamid

Bill Clinton is getting attacked for being “aggressive” in his Fox News interview on Sunday. This is absolute nonsense. God forbid – a politician showing real emotion and anger. I like it. We need more of it. Anger can be healthy, especially when conservatives have been wreaking havoc on our country and its once respectable international reputation for the last five years. Are we angry that the Bush administration sanctions torture, demeans the Geneva Conventions, contaminates “democracy promotion,” and continues to do away with the little respect and credibility our country has left? Yes, we are. And let’s stop apologizing for it. Let’s get angry and let’s channel our anger productively. How? By making mincemeat of Karl Rove's "October Surprise" - whatever that might be - and the dirty tricks which are no doubt to come from the Conservatives' incessant spin machine.  

Comments

[Cal]

Agree completely Shadi, but where are the other Democrats?

We know the Republicans are going to engage in personal attacks over the next 60 days.

The Dems need to start getting agressive now, especially on national security. The Republicans have handed them plenty of ammunition.

[NoVirgin]

And now Condi Rice says the Bush Administration DID do as much or more than the Clinton Adminstration in the months leading up to 9/11. So of course since she said it (think "mushroom cloud") it must be true! Where is her evidence? Where is the proof? Richard Clark knows the truth because he was there, not as a partisan, but as a patriot - serving Republican AND Democratic presidents with equal loyalty. Ask him what the Bush Administration did on those first months of their presidency.

[Ashley]

I think it's great that politicians are getting angry. However, they need to be getting angry that the UN Millenium Development Goals have hit the backburner of the agenda and are NOT being addressed! It is imperative that we eradicate extreme poverty and address these goals in order to really create an economically stable and just world! At least the Borgen Project is working to address these issues: http://www.borgenproject.org

[Zathras]

Bill Clinton's interview (and Condoleeza Rice's response to it) were all about the dominant imperative in American politics today, the avoidance of blame.

The 9/11 Commission report made clear that both the Clinton and Bush administrations made numerous mistakes in attempting to deal with the threat from terrorists, though it understated its findings somewhat. No serving Bush administration official has ever admitted the approach taken between January and September of that year toward al Qaeda was inadequate, and now Bill Clinton is waving his finger at the TV camera and claiming that he tried as hard as he could to get bin Laden.

No, of course we shouldn't believe it. It isn't true. The Democrats would be in much better position this November had they acknowledged as much a long time ago. Bill Clinton saw al Qaeda grow and prosper on his watch for eight years -- eight YEARS -- doing only just enough about it to persuade himself that he was doing something. And that is what Shadi Hamid wants to return to. He thinks it's even worth getting mad about. By God, no one was to blame for 9/11, especially not us, but maybe the other guys! And don't you dare tell us different.

[NoVirgin]

Zathras - your attempt to be fair and reasonable is commendable and certainly what you say has some merit. But it is the Bush Adminstration who has made a living by espousing their terrorist fighting credentials. They have won at least one election by scaring Americans into believing they are the ONLY ones who can keep us safe. And as recent revelations have come forward, we find that they are the ones who are making us more likely to be attacked again. George W. Bush inherited the world - a robust economy and the position as head of the only superpower in the world. He squandered the chance to change the world using peaceful diplomacy and chose to use the weapons of war - most likely in response to his own insecurities.

[Zathras]

That is at least partly true; Bush did inherit (as did Clinton) the position as head of the world's most powerful nation. He also inherited a bubble economy. That is not a defense of his economic policies or anything else he has done, but the fact is that the rates of economic growth in the late 1990s were neither normal or sustainable. Of course Clinton and his defenders, doing what politicians do, will claim credit for them, and blame Bush for their disappearance. We have no obligation to be so credulous as to believe them.

But on my main point, whatever the Bush administration's approach to terrorism was before 9/11, it has changed since. We know how it has changed, for better and worse. For all we know of the Democrats, their approach to terrorism would be to return to what Clinton did. That's not acceptable, and the response that whatever they do can't be worse than Bush isn't acceptable either. The Clinton administration and the President personally let the country down badly with respect to terrorism over the course of many years. The refusal of Democrats to face up to that is telling evidence that they have only learned those lessons of 9/11 that don't reflect badly on the big shots in their own party. If it's a choice between that and Bush, I say we need another choice.

[NoVirgin]

I'm not suggesting that the Clinton Adminstration was perfect. They inherited the situation in Iraq after Desert Storm. I'm not sure the economic sanctions were very useful but they didn't start a pre-emptive war that has us now mired in a bloody mess with no end in sight. They failed to intervene in Rwanda, for which Clinton has publically acknowledged and expressed remorse. When the Bosnia/Kosovo situation turned into a genoicidal conflict Clinton negotiated with our European allies and the NATO forces moved in and involved our military in a way that would minimize the casualties. How many Americans have lost their lives in Bosnia?

Clinton's efforts for Middle East peace may not have been lasting but could anyone have imagined Rabin and Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn. As Clinton has said, he tried.

The foriegn policies of the current adminstration have let things deteriorate in the Middle East and we (America) have long since lost our place as the moral leader of the world. Torture, secret prisons in foriegn lands and preemptive war have turned the hearts of the world against us. The day after September 11 how many people from across the globe were heard to say "Today, we are all Americans." How many would say that today. The adminstration of lost opportunities is what resides in the White House today.

[Zathras]

These are all arguable assertions, but they are also beside the point with respect to terrorism and the Clinton administration's record on that subject. There are people who believe that the approach Bill Clinton defends with such passion -- because it was his -- was worth the price America paid for it on 9/11, and that a return to that approach is just the thing we need. Democrats who now think that approach was a mistake and contributed to the terrorism problem we face today would be best off saying so.

[j.s.]

thanks you shadi- way past the time to stand up and fight for what is right

[NoVirgin]

Zathras wrote, "These are all arguable assertions, but they are also beside the point with respect to terrorism and the Clinton administration's record on that subject." No, they are not beside the point. They have everything to do with where we are today in the fight for terrorism. The NIE report states that our involvement in Iraq has INCREASED the strength and popularity of terrorist organizations. It's all about the perception that America and Americans are a bunch of pompous, arrogant jackasses who can push their will on anybody in the world - because that is the message sent everyday by the Whitehouse, both in demeanor and in action. Only when we get back to an attitude of humility and the need to share our prosperity and civization with the rest of the world - to help them rise above their current circumstances will we regain the world's respect that we once had. No, those who are currently active in terrorist activities will not suddenly change their stripes and put away their rocket launchers. But the support and recruitment they receive from the common people of the world today will subside and eventually die if those people have a better alternative.

[Zathras]

Well, as I have suggested here, there are certainly people who think that the Clinton administration's approach to terrorism was just fine. Clinton himself is one of them. Both he and his defenders are certainly entitled to vigorous public advocacy of going back to the way he approached the al Qaeda problem then, if they believe it was worth the price.

[J Thomas]

Zathras, just now we have two clear models for dealing with terrorism, the Clinton model and the Bush model.

The Bush approach is an utter disaster and you also disapprove of the Clinton approach. Please tell us how we ought to do it.

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