I have said so before. His Administration did a good job supporting GATT and NAFTA, against the opposition of Congressional Democrats, relying on Republican votes. Although it took the Republican Congress to hold his feet to the fire about welfare reform, he at least accepted it in principle, again, in the face of the opposition of Democratic leaders in Congress. He did a good job on the expansion of NATO, taking it slowly but getting it done.
Although he waited too long to intervene in Bosnia, and essentially protected the lines drawn by ethnic cleansing, nevertheless, he did finally succeed in cooling things down, and prevented Serbia and Croatia from being drawn into a direct conflict. Similarly, although his ultimatum to Serbia on Kososvo left little room to negotiate, he ignored the Russians too long, and he attacked Belgrade rather than the massing troops on the border, he still succeeding in limiting the disaster that Kososvo could have become, and destabilizing Milosevic.
He mostly did what he had to in reaction to Iraqi provocation. Nothing spectacular, but more resolute than a lot of Democrats would have been. Once it was clear that the humanitarian exemptions to the interdiction of oil sales were being misappropriated, the Administration should have rethought the policy, but that was mainly a case of bad advice, I think.
I can probably think of some more stuff, but I hope this will do...... |
