The Cellar - View Single Post - Antiwar protests increase probability of war

Undertoad · 02-22-2003, 10:33 AM

Clinton developed the "regime change" policy, and at one point, lightly bombed Hussein. He started bombing the guy in response to the previous UN inspection team's departure. But he started it on one of the days the Lewinsky story broke, which made everyone think it was just a stupid distraction.

If the current proposal is 100% unilateral and preemptive, the 1998 action was 200%. But I recall no such complaints at the time. All of the thinking at the time was that it was a "wag the dog" situation - mostly, I think, because "Wag the Dog" the moview had just been out the previous season, and it was on everyone's minds.

Clinton also bombed Afghanistan in return for the USS Cole. After we invaded Afghanistan we found Taliban - al Qaeda letters that suggested they were simply tickled pink that the US thought a few guided bombs would faze them. They felt it was cowardly, and evidence that the US was a paper tiger unwilling to directly confront possible enemies.

02-22-2003, 10:33 AM	#9
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Clinton developed the "regime change" policy, and at one point, lightly bombed Hussein. He started bombing the guy in response to the previous UN inspection team's departure. But he started it on one of the days the Lewinsky story broke, which made everyone think it was just a stupid distraction. If the current proposal is 100% unilateral and preemptive, the 1998 action was 200%. But I recall no such complaints at the time. All of the thinking at the time was that it was a "wag the dog" situation - mostly, I think, because "Wag the Dog" the moview had just been out the previous season, and it was on everyone's minds. Clinton also bombed Afghanistan in return for the USS Cole. After we invaded Afghanistan we found Taliban - al Qaeda letters that suggested they were simply tickled pink that the US thought a few guided bombs would faze them. They felt it was cowardly, and evidence that the US was a paper tiger unwilling to directly confront possible enemies.