Hey, the former editor of the NYT editorial page says its time for Clinton to resign because of his politically motivated bombing and what it has done to US interests in the world:
December 18, 1998
ON MY MIND / By A.M. ROSENTHAL
What Clinton Can Do
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Bill Clinton has one great service he can offer to his country, only one
now -- swift resignation.
Democratic leaders, and his true friends out of government, owe it to him to
urge him to resign, in the critical interest of all Americans, particularly those
he is sending into action.
The loss in credibility he earned with his quick decision to attack Iraq,
although his impeachment was likely the next day, will dilute the chances of
lasting victory over Saddam Hussein. He created two obstacles to
eliminating Saddam -- a mountain of cynicism, and another of disbelief.
The victims of a war that fails to eliminate Saddam will be not only Iraqis
and Americans, but all who will be slaughtered one day by Iraq's chemical,
nuclear and biological weapons.
Resignation should come as soon as the current few days of bombing end.
History, not Congress, would pass judgment on the White House scandal.
But Mr. Clinton would have made the honest judgment that his presence
had become a weight on his country.
I do not think the President has the courage to resign. But we must say
aloud what we think our leaders should do, not duck behind platitudes --
like when war starts we all must kowtow to the President.
If he stays on, the reputation for lying, deviousness and sick risk-taking that
led him to the cusp of impeachment will eat further at trust in the motives of
the man who commands troops fighting Iraq.
And yesterday Democratic leaders began literally screaming that he should
not be impeached or tried while the U.S. is taking military action against
Iraq -- which could be for a long time.
Many Americans will believe these Democrats echo the President's own
hopes for immunity from Congressional punishment while he commands
troops at combat. I am one of those Americans.
Attack against Saddam for blocking U.N. inspection of Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction was a step he should and could have taken any time during
the six years of his Presidency.
On the Clinton watch, Saddam blocked inspection ever more openly,
creating almost monthly crises.
The report of Richard Butler, head of the U.N. inspection commission,
could justify an attack, but there had been no expectation at the U.N. of an
instant bombing. Yet theoretically with only a few hours of deliberation, the
President used the report to order immediate bombing, without saying what
would come next.
Even after he ordered the attack Wednesday, Mr. Clinton's impulse to
monkey with reality overcame him. He read aloud the offenses that Mr.
Butler charged Saddam committed in the past three weeks of testing Iraq's
intention of cooperation.
The offenses were: cutting off entry to suspicious sites, blocking access to
evidence, refusing to hand over arms documents. The result, as Mr. Clinton
said, was that Mr. Butler concluded that the inspectors could not do their
work, or make disarmament progress.
Mr. Clinton listed the offenses with an air of stern astonishment. But he
knew, and the report said so clearly, that blocking inspection had been
going on since 1991.
Unless Americans studied U.N. reports for years they could get the
impression from Mr. Clinton that they were hearing things just discovered,
necessitating immediate attack. After years of not retaliating against
Saddam's war on U.N. inspection, he decided to attack in the few days
before the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, rejecting the option of waiting until it
was over in January.
The date for the Butler report was set before the timing of impeachment was
known. I have no evidence that Mr. Clinton ordered the immediate bombing
attack for anti-impeachment purposes.
But Mr. Clinton took the risk that his timing would create disbelief in
America and help Saddam become even more popular in the Mideast.
Palestinians in pro-Saddam ecstasy are already burning U.S. flags they
waved for the President a few days ago. Mr. Clinton is given to strange
risks -- as when he gambled the Presidency for office sex.
Until Mr. Clinton ordered the attack on Iraq the day before the scheduled
impeachment vote, his departure was a dispute about morality, the
Constitution and politics.
Now something has been added: how much damage his continuation as
President does to American military and security interests, jargon for life and
death.
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