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.
Noting that Bush had to be “reeling” in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush’s first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining “chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material.”
“That’s why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for,” Clinton said in reference to Iraq and the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.
“So I thought the president had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, ‘Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process.’ You couldn’t responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks,” Clinton said.
This is what I’ve said all along, the intelligent left of centre action was to oust Saddam, the submerged driving force behind protest against the war in Iraq is the fact that George W Bush was the man who proposed it. So, liberals have two choices - either they accept that they’ve totally screwed up on this issue and now have an unelectable candidate or give up on Clinton. No choice there guys - The Man from Hope wins every-time.
Now could someone please bring in a decent democratic candidate rather than this political weathervane? It’s about time someone from the left stood up and said “Dammit we’ve almost given the ticket to a bozo!”
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that after Bush leaves office, Kerry’s going to be the president, for 4 years. 4 years where he can’t make any real headway in domestic policy given Republican Congress and Senate control - Heck even Clinton was throttled. The only area of Kerry’s administration that’ll be evident or truly active as president will be the loftier realms of foreign policy and international relations and it’s in these areas that Kerry is an absolute disaster. Kerry standing up to the UN? Kerry telling Chirac and Schroeder where to stick their anti-American federation? Kerry intervening during an international crisis? I can’t see it, I just can’t.
Blair would cast a massive shadow over him on the international scene. Not once since the fall of the Berlin wall has the international image of a president counted for as much as it does now, during the War on Terror, putting Kerry in that spotlight would be disastrous.
I hate to say it but the Left has already shot itself in the foot with Kerry. Clinton’s not an assassin, he’s just pointing out the bullet hole.
Much like the turmeric chicken that I’m currently simmering not 20 feet away from me in the kitchen, we’re cooked this time round.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at June 20, 2004 06:18 PM | TrackBack