this White House destroyed an intelligence network that was protecting us from the threat posed by chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
SC,
Let's take a look at the different approaches...and examine who destroyed our intelligence network.
>>>President William J. Clinton, Announcing the nomination of Michael Carns to be DCI, 8 February 1995
"IN THE YEARS SINCE [THE National Security Act created CIA], the men and women of the CIA and its sister agencies have done more than most Americans will or can ever know to keep our Nation strong and secure and to advance the cause of democracy and freedom around the world.
"Today, because the cold war is over, some say that we should and can step back from the world and that we don't need intelligence as much as we used to, that we ought to severely cut the intelligence budget. A few have even urged us to scrap the central intelligence service. I think these views are profoundly wrong. I believe making deep cuts in intelligence during peacetime is comparable to canceling your health insurance when you're feeling fine.
"Every morning I start my day with an intelligence report. The intelligence I receive informs just about every foreign policy decision we make. It's easy to take it for granted, but we couldn't do without it. Unique intelligence makes it less likely that our forces will be sent into battle, less likely that American lives will have to put at risk. It gives us a chance to prevent crises instead of forcing us to manage them." <<<
It was all pure BS...In 1994, the year before making that speech, Clinton cut CIA staffing by 24% and the cuts continued.
"CIA recruitment was frozen and staff levels were cut by 24% by 1994, twice the rate recommended by the National Performance Review. "By 1997, 1,000 analysts had retired from the CIA, scaling the agency back to 1977 levels."
What is not widely discussed is that Clinton also cut 40% of the military intelligence units too. Some 90% of those cut were gathering information overseas.
"Clinton had been in office just 38 days when the World Trade Centre in New York was bombed, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000. Three years later, the US barracks at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were destroyed, killing 19 American soldiers. Other terror attacks would claim the lives of over 200 people, including 29 Americans following explosions at US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Tanzania, and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen."
Clinton's response to these attacks was to dismantle our intelligence gathering capability. Our capabilities have improved in the past 2-3 years but GWB cannot be expected to rebuild that devastating teardown overnight.
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