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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DOUG H who wrote (180720)	9/13/2001 10:24:32 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Er.... sorry, It was a narrow topic I was addressing (Taliban, Iraq, Iran, etc.) and I didn't want to get off-topic or write a volume. (You may have noticed I have a problem with brevity :) If I'd wanted to talk about the Clinton administrations and their influence on South Asia, I could have talked about the India / Pakistan nuclear issues (and the intelligence failures there) but frankly the Clinton focus was more on East Asia than South Asia.... Remember the Asian currency crisis which rattled the entire world's markets? The Iraqi mess was a fait accompli left him by his predecessor Bush the First. Our allies had mostly already deserted us because of the failed sanctions policy. The Brits and French are funny that way about wanting policies that actually WORK. (And now our new Secretary of State is saying that we need the cooperation of our allies to mount an effective response... imagine that!) By the way, Saddam has also been a significant supporter of Ben Laden... along with Afghanistan and Pakistan and Sudan and others. The Saudis, Iranians, and Somalis have not been terribly helpful either (remember the Saudis clamming up when the investigation of Kobar Towers bombing began to implicate the Iranians, and sending our FBI packing... and the Somalis stonewalling the Cole investigation?) Clinton at least did respond against Ben Laden in Sudan and Afghanistan, but got ZERO support from our allies at the time. Remember all the hand-wringing over the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by our allies in Europe and the region? Clinton surely can't be blamed for the Iraqi mess, which was largely created by Reagan/Bush and then Bush policies which displayed little understanding of realities on the ground, or who our true enemies were (read: totalitarian, theocratic rule). Now, if someone really wants to stop Ben Laden's terrorists... and others like him... we should, in addition to other direct actions, FOLLOW THE MONEY. Confiscate the accounts in the UAE, Switzerland, etc. (and the money is in many places) and we cripple the ability to support logistics. Maybe we can even get some of that $43 million back that Bush the Second gave to the Taliban this spring.