Bush saved the Kurds in Iraq after letting their uprising be crushed, then tried to feed the Somalis. Then he left that little campaign as a house-warming gift for Clinton. Clinton, after passively watching Sarajevo be destroyed, finally intervened in Kosovo, but did nothing in Rwanda.
I certainly would not call the Bush bit with the Kurds a human rights campaign; it was clearly part and parcel of a "strategic interest" bit, if that's what you wish to call Iraq. As for the Somalis, good point. I forgot that one.
As for Clinton, the evidence is not that Clinton took on every possible human rights campaign. As he has admitted, one of the mistakes of his administration was not doing as much as he could in Rwanda. So that leaves the argument he was dragged into Bosnia and into Kosovo. There is no doubt the Clinton folk were not eager to go into Bosnia even though they campaigned on doing something about it. However, they did go. And whatever else you say about the Bosnian effort, they certainly, finally, managed to make it a center piece. I brought up Kosovo because, whatever else one says about it, it was clearly about "ethnic cleansing." |
