Here are some more quotes from our conservative friends at PBS:
But the coordinated and politically astute operating strategy of U.S. Ambassador Robert B. Oakley and U.S. Marine General Robert Johnston (who both had outstanding access to Washington) would be interrupted, first by the U.S. presidential transition, and again during the handoff from UNITAF to UNOSOM II, the entire field leadership of the U.S.-led intervention was replaced by a less united and coherent operation reporting to U.N. headquarters ....
...Another major discontinuity was, of course, the adoption of a sweepingly ambitious new "nation-building" resolution by the Security Council (Resolution 814), which authorized UNOSOM II at the very moment existing management, reporting channels, and capabilities were being transformed. The nation-building resolution aimed explicitly at reestablishing Somalia's political institutions and rehabilitating its economy as well as assuring security throughout the country, not merely in the famine-afflicted south and central zones...
The first quote is actually rather generous to Clinton. Since it ignores the fact that when Clinton came to office, he seldom, if ever sought advice from those who came before him. It was a pattern of arrogance that Clinton exhibited in all aspects of his administration.
In the case of Somalia, Clintonian arrogance cost 22 Americans their lives. |
