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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (4873)	12/8/2003 7:44:47 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20773

We certainly agree that liars are the enemies of moderation and decent conduct, anywhere in the world. Clinton was a chronic liar in some areas and besmirched his entire presidency. He could have been remembered as one of the top 2-3 truly gifted politicians in the second half of the 20th century (JFK and Reagan are the other two) yet instead he will be remembered for his willy-wagging ways and rhetorical gymnastics. My time in the Balkans convinced me that all arguments about "maybe it was France's fault" or "maybe it was Russia's fault" or "it happened because the US wanted to" or "it happened because the US prevented someone from stopping it" are all just self-serving Monday morning quarterbacking based on fragments of information or outright lies. Saddam was a fanatic, too dumb to take a sweet deal in exile that would have preserved most of his personal perks, when he knew that the jig was up for being a national or regional force. But ironically, like the Taliban he may be back in a few years once US attention has moved on (as it always does, just ask the Bosnians and Kosovars). If you are going to act, do it right and succeed. Leaving Saddam and Bin Laden at large has undercut much of what the administration hoped to achieve by taking such vigorous action in the first place. As for intervening around the world, no other country has the air and sealift capacity that the US has to move significant forces into a region. The French can send in a few paratroopers somewhere, but getting armor or artillery or planes to another continent is a whole other matter. No big moves will happen without US support. So we are back to square one - if we want effective international cooperation, we have to be one of the main cooperating parties. The unilateralist myth has hopefully been shattered now. Maybe the next administration can pick up the pieces and rebuild something that works.