Bush decries scandal, sees U.S. security at risk
By Ralph Z. Hallow
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
washtimes.com
Former President George Bush said yesterday that scandal
distracting the Clinton presidency is hurting America's
ability to deal effectively with foreign crises that threaten U.S.
security.
"It's hard to separate the two crises," he said in an exclusive
interview with The Washington Times.
Mr. Bush, 74, has resisted criticizing President Clinton, who
defeated him in 1992. But yesterday, in Washington to mark
the publication of a new book he has written with Brent
Scowcroft, he cited the widespread speculation that the August
missile strikes against Sudan and Afghanistan were an effort to
divert attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal as an
example of how the scandal "caused that kind of question to be
raised."
The world is in many ways less secure and the United
States more threatened than before the collapse of global
communism, he said.
The new book, "A World Transformed," published by
Alfred A. Knopf, was celebrated last night at a reception at the
Metropolitan Club. He was honored with Mr. Scowcroft, the
retired general who was the chief national security adviser in his
administration.
-- Continued from Front Page --
Mr. Bush also said:
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein remains the foreign
leader who poses the greatest threat in the world.
Despite recent hints otherwise, Gov. George W. Bush of
Texas, his eldest son, "would like" to run for president in
2000 but hasn't yet decided to do so.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
have not outlived their usefulness, and deserve U.S.
financial support. But both organizations need the
attention of reformers.
Mr. Bush's remarks were his first on how the Lewinsky
scandal has, in his view, affected U.S. security. He has avoided
criticism of Mr. Clinton and he made it clear yesterday that he
expressed no opinion of the innocence or guilt of Mr. Clinton,
who faces an impeachment inquiry by the House of
Representatives.
It's the speculation about Mr. Clinton's motives that hurts
U.S. interests, he said.
"For example, after the [Aug. 20] counterterrorism action
that was taken against camps in Afghanistan and the building in
the Sudan, there was this 'Wag the Dog' reference," Mr. Bush
said, citing the movie in which a U.S. president creates a phony
war to distract public attention from a sex scandal enveloping
his administration.
"I don't happen to agree with that," Mr. Bush said of "Wag
the Dog" comparisons. "I don't see how the Defense
Department and the Joint Chiefs and others would go along
with such a thing."
Defense Secretary William Cohen was among the guests at
the book party last night.
"But the very fact that it is debated sends a message to
some of these other countries that is counterproductive for the
United States. I'm not buying into that scenario personally, but
my point is that [the Lewinsky scandal] caused that kind of
question to be raised. That is not good for us."
Mr. Bush, who assembled the international coalition that
drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, identified Saddam
Hussein without hesitation as the "most dangerous foreign
leader" today.
As for what the Clinton administration should be doing
about the Iraqi dictator, Mr. Bush suggested two things.
"Be firm, and do enough hard work in convincing friends
and neutrals that we should stay together in insisting that he live
up to every single commitment he has made," he said.
Mr. Scowcroft, interviewed with Mr. Bush, was less
reticent to criticize Mr. Clinton and his foreign and military
advisers. "One of the unfortunate things is that they have not
carried out what they said is necessary," Mr. Scowcroft said.
"We have to keep Saddam Hussein from breaking out and
doing the things he otherwise would do, which is to terrorize
the Gulf, get control of oil supplies."
The former president declined to be drawn into a discussion
of whether Mr. Clinton should resign, as some Democrats and
Republicans in Congress have suggested. He cited two reasons
why he will continue to "stay out of" such a discussion.
"Should I say what's in my heart and respond forthrightly to
questions of this nature that people understandably ask, the
news media would immediately go down and kind of juxtapose
my views against those of our sons, both of whom are running
[for office]."
Jeb Bush, 45, his younger son, is making his second bid for
governor of Florida. Polls show him running well ahead of his
Democratic opponent.
"I don't want to do anything to complicate their lives," Mr.
Bush said.
George W. Bush, 52, expected to win a landslide
re-election as governor of Texas next month, is the early
front-runner in almost all polls of Republicans for their
presidential nomination in 2000.
But last month the Texas governor -- usually referred to as
"George W." -- told an interviewer that the "process in
Washington is sullied" and he isn't sure he wants to submit his
family to the rigors of a national campaign.
"I don't think that one comment should be too literally
translated to mean he won't run," Mr. Bush said of his son. "I
think he'd like to run for president, but I think he also has been
honest with the voters of Texas, saying he hasn't made up his
mind. And he hasn't."
He noted that Jeb Bush has a double-digit lead in Florida
polls, "but he was ahead [at this stage when he ran for
governor in 1994] and he knows it and he is ... working his
heart out."
Despite conservative reluctance in Congress to appropriate
emergency funding for the IMF and the World Bank, Mr. Bush
supports such funding, but with reservations.
"I don't think they have outlived their usefulness," Mr. Bush
said of the two agencies. "I think we should step up to the plate
and do what we have to do, working with those organizations
to be sure that the demands that they put on countries [to
which they make loans] are not unreasonable."
>>>>Now, we know Joint Chiefs and the FBI may not have gone along
>>>>with the bombing... |
