Oh the hypocrisy - Republican quotes during Clinton years

Politics International Politics
1

The quotes from Hannity and Bush are just priceless!

[quote]I find it odd the Republicans had a different message when Clinton was President:
KY’s Senior Senator Mitch McConnell said during a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate
“Domestic terrorism is not a cause we have to fight or a project we need to fund. We are not interested in capturing bin Laden. Even though he has been offered to us. We are not the world’s policemen. It’s not our job to clean up other countries messes or arrest it’s bad guys.”

VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO BOSNIA:

“You can support the troops but not the president.”–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“Well, I just think it’s a bad idea. What’s going to happen is they’re going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years.”–Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

“Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?”–Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

“[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation’s armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy.”–Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)"

American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.”
–Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

“I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn’t think we had done enough in the diplomatic area.”–Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today”–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”-- Governor George W. Bush ®-TX
[/quote]

theyoungturks.com/story/2007/4/25/7588/86433

2

[quote]VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO
BOSNIA
: [/quote]

I seem to recall a lot of people suggesting that Bosnia was a European problem, being situated in Europe and all, and that it was, as Henry Kissinger said, “A regional problem… with regional thugs” (ie, Slobby Milosevich and friends).

Are YOU suggesting Vay, oh why do I ask, that BUsh’s statements here have some connection to…hmmm, Iraq?

I think I also read a book that said one time, when Bush was in Band Camp, he said, “That’s not my fault!” when something got broken.

3

[quote=“jdsmith”][quote]VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO
BOSNIA
: [/quote]

I seem to recall a lot of people suggesting that Bosnia was a European problem, being situated in Europe and all, and that it was, as Henry Kissinger said, “A regional problem… with regional thugs” (ie, Slobby Milosevich and friends).

Are YOU suggesting Vay, oh why do I ask, that BUsh’s statements here have some connection to…hmmm, Iraq?

I think I also read a book that said one time, when Bush was in Band Camp, he said, “That’s not my fault!” when something got broken.[/quote]

So I guess from that logic Iraq is a ME problem, best solved by the powers that be in the ME like Saudi, Iran…Israel :laughing:

4

[quote=“Elegua”][quote=“jdsmith”][quote]VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO
BOSNIA
: [/quote]

I seem to recall a lot of people suggesting that Bosnia was a European problem, being situated in Europe and all, and that it was, as Henry Kissinger said, “A regional problem… with regional thugs” (ie, Slobby Milosevich and friends).

Are YOU suggesting Vay, oh why do I ask, that BUsh’s statements here have some connection to…hmmm, Iraq?

I think I also read a book that said one time, when Bush was in Band Camp, he said, “That’s not my fault!” when something got broken.[/quote]

So I guess from that logic Iraq is a ME problem, best solved by the powers that be in the ME like Saudi, Iran…Israel :laughing:[/quote]
You might think that it you felt Iraq/Iran/Syria/Suadi Arabia to be regional problems. SOme, myself included, do not.

5

[quote=“jdsmith”][quote]VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO
BOSNIA
: [/quote]

I seem to recall a lot of people suggesting that Bosnia was a European problem, being situated in Europe and all, and that it was, as Henry Kissinger said, “A regional problem… with regional thugs” (ie, Slobby Milosevich and friends).

Are YOU suggesting Vay, oh why do I ask, that BUsh’s statements here have some connection to…hmmm, Iraq?

I think I also read a book that said one time, when Bush was in Band Camp, he said, “That’s not my fault!” when something got broken.[/quote]

You don’t sense the hypocrisy here? :unamused: Assuming these comments were not politically driven, (and of course we can assume that, because the Republicans were never politically driven to ruin Clinton’s presidency.) These comments indicate what these people’s expectations were of a president committing troops to war. So how come these expectations don’t apply to a different president? None of these expectations are Bosnia-centric; they are reasonable expectations that any president ought to address before making any kind of military committment or at least sometime during the conflict.

6

No, but the context of the quotes certainly is.

My point is this: dragging out dusty quotes, taking them out of their original context, and then applying them to the tip of spear then used to attack someone in an unrelated context is disinegenous…at best.

I don’t like it when anyone does it.

If this is going to be…yet another…Iraq thread, just say it.

I do not believe there ever WAS any intention to “exit” Iraq once the US got in. Otherwise 14 US military bases wouldn’t have been planned and had construction immediately begun, and a humungous embassy wouldn’t have been built in the heart of Iraq.

7

[quote=“jdsmith”][quote=“Elegua”][quote=“jdsmith”][quote]VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO
BOSNIA
: [/quote]

I seem to recall a lot of people suggesting that Bosnia was a European problem, being situated in Europe and all, and that it was, as Henry Kissinger said, “A regional problem… with regional thugs” (ie, Slobby Milosevich and friends).

Are YOU suggesting Vay, oh why do I ask, that BUsh’s statements here have some connection to…hmmm, Iraq?

I think I also read a book that said one time, when Bush was in Band Camp, he said, “That’s not my fault!” when something got broken.[/quote]

So I guess from that logic Iraq is a ME problem, best solved by the powers that be in the ME like Saudi, Iran…Israel :laughing:[/quote]
You might think that it you felt Iraq/Iran/Syria/Suadi Arabia to be regional problems. SOme, myself included, do not.[/quote]

Oh, so I guess it is OK then. If you and some like minded people think it’s an international issue.

Poor bastards should have got themselves some WMDs so they could be saved unhypocritically.

8

Iraq is about about oil, remember? Bosnia was about murder.

I suppose we should just admit that war is bad and leave it at that.

9

Iraq is about about oil, remember? Bosnia was about murder.[/quote]

Oh, so it is about oil? :astonished: I guess we should ignore all of that crap about Iraqi Freedom & WMDs? Or the poor Kurds that got gassed.

A cheap throwaway line (but perfect for the intarweb).

10

whatever man. It’s not like you really want to discuss anything here.

night night

11

Bye

12

Of course, the context is Bosnia-centric, but the points made in most of the comments, if not all of them, are relevant and should be addressed anytime a president commits troops, no?

It’s not disingenuous. It’s revealing hypocrisy. These quotes are not, as I’ve alluded to before, specific to Bosnia. They are reasonable expectations of what a president, any president, should do when sending troops into combat. The fact that President Bush said that President Clinton must have an exit strategy when he himself now refuses to provide one smacks of hypocrisy. What else can it be? Did any of them really not believe what they were saying? Had they forgotten what they had said?

I’ve not mentioned Iraq, so I don’t see why you’re putting that on me. I’ve said that the content of the comments made by the Republicans was reasonable - reasonable enough for all presidents to address, be it Clinton, Bush, the next president, etc.

That is beside the point. The point is that these people expected President Clinton to be more forthcoming with information about his intentions and plans when putting troops into harm’s way. (Or maybe they were just giving him a hard time.) Yet, these same people refused to be forthcoming when it was their turn to put the troops in harm’s way.

13

Iraq is about about oil, remember? Bosnia was about murder.[/quote]

Well it’s funny that you should say that, because . . .

[quote]Greenspan memoir links Iraq war to US thirst for oil
16/09/2007 15:24 WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (AFP)
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, for years an inscrutable seer on the economy, is causing a stir by alleging in his new memoir that “the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Greenspan, who as head of the US central bank was famous for his tight-lipped reserve, is uncharacteristically direct in “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,” also accusing President George W. Bush of abandoning Republican principles on the economy.

“I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows – the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he wrote in reported excerpts of the book, which is set for release on Monday.

Greenspan’s memoirs appear a year and a half after he left the Fed, with the US economy at a crossroads, and ahead of a critical central bank meeting under the chairmanship of his successor, Ben Bernanke.

The man dubbed “the Oracle” tells his own tale of nearly two decades at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions – including surprising swipes at the Bush administration.[/quote]

HG

14

Iraq is about about oil, remember? Bosnia was about murder.[/quote]

Well it’s funny that you should say that, because . . .

[quote]Greenspan memoir links Iraq war to US thirst for oil
16/09/2007 15:24 WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (AFP)
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, for years an inscrutable seer on the economy, is causing a stir by alleging in his new memoir that “the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Greenspan, who as head of the US central bank was famous for his tight-lipped reserve, is uncharacteristically direct in “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,” also accusing President George W. Bush of abandoning Republican principles on the economy.

“I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows – the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he wrote in reported excerpts of the book, which is set for release on Monday.

Greenspan’s memoirs appear a year and a half after he left the Fed, with the US economy at a crossroads, and ahead of a critical central bank meeting under the chairmanship of his successor, Ben Bernanke.

The man dubbed “the Oracle” tells his own tale of nearly two decades at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions – including surprising swipes at the Bush administration.[/quote]

HG[/quote]

Typical Greenspan - tell us what we already know, but indecipherable grammar.

[quote]Of course, the context is Bosnia-centric, but the points made in most of the comments, if not all of them, are relevant and should be addressed anytime a president commits troops, no?
[/quote]

These points are quite valid in my opinion. Of course, this is one of the ‘lessons’ from Vietnam, right? Don’t commit military force to a fight that requires a political solution, where you cannot excercise sufficient control of the parties required to find the solution. In Vietnam, the opposing side merely had to wait for us to go home. In Iraq, all they need to do is deny us the possibility of implementing a working infrastruction. We talk of ‘strategic control’, but that means fuck-all if you require local control to implement your political solution.

Yes, we’re supposed to blindly trust their judgement as experts, even as they ignore their own. The administration is a poster child for letting political dogma influence practical reality. The world tend to treat you roughly when you do that.