The former President changes his mind on Iraq.
Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
A man has a right to change his mind. So we guess Bill Clinton was within his rights when he told a student audience at the American University in Dubai that the Bush Administration had committed a "big mistake" by liberating Iraq. "Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done," said the former President.
This is not the Bill Clinton we remember. Back when he was running for President, in 1992, Mr. Clinton promised an Administration that would "not coddle tyrants, from Baghdad to Beijing." As President, he launched military strikes against Iraq in 1993, following Saddam's attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait; in 1996, and in 1998, following Saddam's ouster of U.N. weapons inspectors.
On October 31, 1998, Mr. Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act. "The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home," Mr. Clinton said in language later adopted by the Bush Administration. "I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian makeup. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else."
Two months later, while announcing a three-day bombing of Iraq, Mr. Clinton added: "Heavy as they are, the cost of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors. He will make war on his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them and he will use them" (our emphasis).
Nor is that all. In June 2004, over a year after the liberation of Iraq, Mr. Clinton had this to say to Time magazine: "You know, I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over. . . . After 9/11, let's be fair here, if you had been President, you'd think, Well, this fellow bin Laden just turned these three airplanes full of fuel into weapons of mass destruction, right? Arguably they were super-powerful chemical weapons. Think about it that way.
"So, you're sitting there as President, you're reeling in the aftermath of this, so, yeah, you want to go get bin Laden and do Afghanistan and all that. But you also have to say, 'Well, my first responsibility now is to try everything possible to make sure that this terrorist network and other terrorist networks cannot reach chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material. I've got to do that.'
"That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for."
As we said, a man can change his mind. It's unfortunate, however, that a former President couldn't leave policy differences at the water's edge. And Mr. Clinton would do well to consider that while it's one thing for Senators to grasp at poll numbers to win an election, it's quite another for a former President to give them political cover. Mr. Clinton's remarks will only make it harder for the next Democratic President--maybe his own wife--to lead the country during wartime.
opinionjournal.com |
