Bush Timing on Iraq Was Wrong, Clinton Says

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040620/us_nm/media_clinton_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1473

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) made the right decision to go after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) but the timing of the invasion was wrong, Bill Clinton (news - web sites) said in an interview with Time magazine released Sunday.


"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq (news - web sites), even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," the former president said.


"I would not have done it until after (former U.N. chief weapons inspector) Hans Blix finished his job." snip



"We went in there because (Bush) bought the Wolfowitz-Cheney analysis that the Iraqis would be better off, we could shake up the authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East, and our leverage to make peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would be increased," Clinton told Time.

moew

[Seabiscuit]

1. Aw, come on, Big Dog, you can do a lot better than that!

What a pathetic, milquetoast speach. Grow some cajones, Bill!!!!

[Gore1FL]

3. Speech?

It was an interview about his book.

[emulatorloo]

20. If the inspections had been completed, there would be no invasion

It is pretty simple.

[dudeness]

2. LMAO

this shows clinton retained his sense of humour..

[seventhson]

4. Clinton is a Douchebag

when he sucks Bush's C*ck like this.

It is WHY I do not trust him and think the fact that he was backed by the same Arkansas mafia as the Bushes(the Jackson Stephens Group which now is bashing Kerry via the "Club for Growth") makes him untrustworthy and likely one cause of the right-wingishness of the democratic party.

I STILL believe Clinton was tainted by the dirty Bush operations at Mena (he looked the other way while North et al flew in billions of cocaine to get money/weapons illegally for the contras)

I think he sold Gore out too.

And comments like these show he is STILL bewholden to the Bushes.

If he would BASH Bush on Iraq I might feel differently.

But I don't. This HURTS Kerry, Clinton, you asshole!

Charismatic charlatan and one of the most convincing and silk-tongued orator-liars (as he admits in his book) the world has seen (at least in our white house(

If Bush could lie like Clinton we'd be in trouble, but probably not as much trouble because we (and the world) might actually believe something he said and actually have some confidence in him instead of zero.

Clinton destroys his own legacy and credibility with assholey remarks like these which are murderously wrong.

If Blix had been allowed to do his job there would have been no war and Clinton needs to say THAT or shut up!!!

Shut UP, Big Dog. YOU WANT TO BE THE ONLY DEM ELECTED FOR A HUNDRED YEARS?

man that pisses me off


go kerry.....! rah!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[seventhson]

8. Dumpy and Deanhole?

we see where YOUR sentiments lie.

but who is dumpy? Kucinich? Gore?

Precisely which Dems that I ADMIRE are you bashing here when you support the idea that Bush was right on Saddam?

It is bloody mass murder and war crimes.

Clinton is dead wrong.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[seventhson]

15. Dean's a fool and Kucinich is an asshole???

I'm alerting bubba

[Zhade]

52. I helped you out yesterday, and it looks like they banned that asshole.

Good. It was obvious that fucker was nothing but a disruptor.

[w4rma]

49. Kucinich was mayor of Cleveland *after* the fire(s) on the river.

Not during or before.

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

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[pretzel4gore]

11. ahahah! don't forget, the repukebles hate clinton....

US politics is like the old soviet 'read the tea leaves' era where 'is his flagpin on his RIGHT lapel (not usual left?) etcetera.... and we can only guess what's happening behind curtains. The pukes took a fairly successful idea the USA and have systematically ruined it: they may have engineered one of most vile back stab political acts of all time (911) and killed tens of thousands innocents for no practical reason.....Mr clinton must navigate these waters, and it maybe often looks like he's 'going along' with pure evil, which is very frustrating to say the least. As you notice, Kerry himself is being very inobtrusive, as he knows the power, and criminality, of cnn/fox/nbc/nytimes, wash post wsj, pbs and the thousands of mediawhores who've betrayed the country, the planet and god (if there's such a being) while abetting bushinc.
The enemy is the pukes. period. As liberal dems, disagreements are the spice of association here :)

[Tellurian]

6. HA! Clinton is Brilliant...

He is taking on the whole RW all by hisself!

Why?

BECAUSE HE CAN!

Why can he?

Because he's the most brilliant political
strategist walking the face of the earth, today!
And he has surrounded himself with like minded people,
who feel as strongly as he does at getting the job done!

[seventhson]

7. By saying Bush was RIGHT on Iraq???

It pisses me off

and it hurts Kerry

Is this all to get Hillary in the WH in 2008 or WHAT?

Do you guys AGREE that BUSH WAS RIGHT???

Insanity and somebody has to have the balls (or overies) to call Clinton on this Bullshyte.

You call that BRILLIANCE?

I guess it is if he is trying to help Bush and Hillary.

Jeesh!

[Tellurian]

9. Why do you expect someone else to soothe

your emotions because you do not understand the dynamics of strategy?

[seventhson]

10. what strategy? This helps Bush and hurts Kerry

If Clinton could ever admit he was wrong -- this is the time to do it (even if he doesn't believe it) to help his country and to help defeat Bush.

This is not strategy.

It is assholery.

[Tellurian]

16. Do you know the meaning of the word strategy?

strat·a·gem n. ( P ) Pronunciation Key (strt-jm)

A military maneuver designed to deceive or surprise an enemy.
A clever, often underhanded scheme for achieving an objective.

Reading your response. I don't think you do.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

24. Very good.

Clinton is being very sharp here, and setting the groundwork for a critique of the war that Kerry could use.

Recall, Kerry DID vote for the war.

[TomNickell]

29. He'd be saying Kerry was wrong, too.....

Kerry voted for the Iraq war resolution, remember.

Clinton took the only line available.

Michael Moore is doing a good job and so is Bill. They just have -different- jobs.

[mike_c]

39. dammit, Kerry WAS wrong-- someone needs to say it....

Covering his ass just gets us 4 more years of the PNAC Middle East agenda, no matter who wins the election!

[bread_and_roses]

12. Strategy be damned

Expressing support for this illegal, immoral undeclared "war" is reprehensible.

[seventhson]

14. Thanks

I agree

wtf is up with Clinton?


WHY ???

This strategy only helps Bush.

we NEED Kerry to say Bush was wrong (and so was he on his Iraq vote)
NOT pander to the warmongers and repukes

[Tellurian]

18. If you don't know or can't understand what Clinton is up to

it just doesn't make sense your criticism is accurate.

How can you criticize something you know nothing about?

[seventhson]

19. what strategy? To say Bush was right is suicide

for Kerry and the dems

I'm listening

explain the strategy (IF THERE IS ANY)

I think Clinton is just to self-absorbed to admit he was wrong and is too close to the Bushes nit to help them like this,

That is my opinion.

TYhis "strategy" helps Bush

But please do try to explain it to us. Please.

[Tellurian]

22. Suicide? Suicide for whom?

Clinton is telling it like it is.

All Clinton said is, Bush's timing was off for the invasion of Iraq.

Clinton said Bush should have waited until the weapons inspectors were through with their inspections.

[seventhson]

25. I disagree - it is suicide for Clinton to say Bush was right

to go to war with Iraq to oust Saddam and that it was just hius "timing" that was wrong.

It is suicide to promote Bush in any way shape or form and this kind of thing is the reason I cannot get past Clintom's on the trust thing.

I think he sold us out and continues to do so.

GREAT president in many ways. Especially compared to Bush.

But this shit supporting Bush is damn creepy and unsettling and makes me think he is NEVER to be trusted (especially in this campaign)

Remember I believe he sold out Al Gore too.

[I thought so.]

46. A candidate that promises,

what he can't deliver is a Liar. If you can't understand politics get another hobby. Politicians lie because we always want more than they can deliver.
Let's see about Kucinch. His plan for the "Department of Peace" is a good idea ,but it will never pass.
He is free to say these things because it is easy.

I want things that can happen. Kerry has taken a BIG BITE. The mess that is now could challehge the best. Let us vote for him and pray if you think that will work. Kerry has taken a hard way to go.

[emulatorloo]

21. If the inspections had continued, there would have been no invasion

No WMDs = No Invasion.

It is pretty simple.

[seventhson]

23. Then Bush was WRONG and Clinton needs to SAY that

not say this tripe that he was RIGHT

I understand defending the big dog

I just cannot do it when he is dead wrong and acting like a saboteur

[wildmanj]

17. big dog

dare to read a book or so---THE MORE YOU BELIEVE THE LESS YOU KNOW

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. As with so many of your posts, you seem to have let your emotions...

...rule the day. You have NO IDEA what Clinton is doing, but you insist on launching some kind of major rant. In fact, IMHO, you are completely wrong about Clinton in every single one of your comments.

This is the same guy that tied the GOP in knots for eight years and withstood every single attempt to get him removed from office. Only one of those attempts to remove him from office was based on reality, but none of what he did with Lewinsky was an impeachable offense no matter how hard Starr tried to dress it up. All of the other attempts to remove him from office were complete FABRICATIONS by the Scaife-funded Arkansas Project, including the stories presented by Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones.

This is the same guy that led the nation to the most properous eight years we had ever known...a time of economic prosperity that we may never see again. The budget was balanced, the wealthy were paying their fair share of taxes, and wars were limited in scope with finite purposes. We even had an enormous budget surplus.

Let's look again at what Clinton was quoted as saying, "We went in there because (Bush) bought the Wolfowitz-Cheney analysis that the Iraqis would be better off, we could shake up the authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East, and our leverage to make peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would be increased," Clinton told Time.

IMHO, the statement above makes the NeoCons look VERY bad because it points out some of the REAL reasons that FratBoy sent our troops into Iraq. He makes no mention in this statement about the FALSE reasons actually used publicly by the NeoCons..."Iraq has WMDs", and "Irag is connected to Al Qaeda".

How ANY of this hurts Kerry is beyond my ability to understand, and IMHO, you've done nothing in your post to help me or anyone else understand your thought processes.

[seventhson]

27. No - my emotions are not ruling the day. REASON is ruling. Look HERE:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush made the right decision to go after Saddam Hussein but the timing of the invasion was wrong, Bill Clinton said in an interview with Time magazine released on Sunday.


"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq," Clinton said.


If this is something anyone here supports then I pity you.

Blindly supporting Clinton when he says stuff like this is political suicide for the democrats and for the left.

If you do not see where it HELPS Bush and hurts Kerry then I don't know...


sometimes I think the blind (DLC) are leading the blind (dem loyalists to the end) into a ditch.

THAT is what pisses me off so much.

we need Clinton to BLAST Bush the way GORE has been doing NOT DEFEND Bush from the left as Clinton readily ADMITS he is doing.

I stand by my position: Clinton is a douchebag (in this instance).

[Media_Lies_Daily]

33. Once again, you're getting emotionally caught up despite your...

...protestations to the contrary. Let's take a look at your post, shall we?

You offered the following quote as evidence of Clinton hurting Kerry:

"'I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq,' Clinton said."

...and then you followed this up with another set of comments based on emotion:

"If this is something anyone here supports then I pity you.

Blindly supporting Clinton when he says stuff like this is political suicide for the democrats and for the left.

If you do not see where it HELPS Bush and hurts Kerry then I don't know..."

No, I don't see where this helps FratBoy and hurts Kerry, and I certainly don't need your rather insulting and false offer of "pity". Let's stick to the facts, shall we?

Far from "blindly supporting Clinton", I prefer instead to examine his comments in light of his past history as the last legally-elected President. Clinton is working the undecideds, those voters who are currently more conservative than the Democratic center-left and more liberal than the Republican center-right. This is where the election will be won or lost because the base voters on both political extremes will vote for their candidate no matter what.

"...when he says stuff like this is political suicide for the democrats and for the left."

Interesting comment, but do you have anything factual to back up your comment?

And then you finished yet another EMOTIONALLY CHARGED post with the following set of comments:

"sometimes I think the blind (DLC) are leading the blind (dem loyalists to the end) into a ditch.

THAT is what pisses me off so much.

we need Clinton to BLAST Bush the way GORE has been doing NOT DEFEND Bush from the left as Clinton readily ADMITS he is doing.

I stand by my position: Clinton is a douchebag (in this instance)."

IMHO, the name-calling exhibited in your post does little to help you defend your point of view. IMHO, you seem to be completely incapable of understanding political strategies based on something other than a direct frontal assault. Check your history...direct frontal assaults rarely carried the day.

[seventhson]

42. why does anyone assume the undecideds are rightists?

I think the numbers are more persuaive that they are from the left - the Nader types etc.

If this is their "strategy" then i believe they are completely and insanely wrong.

You cannot defeat Bush by saying Bush was "Right" and the ""left" was WRONG on Iraq, It only gets those in the center-right to think Bush maybe is not so wrong and Kerry is not so different and therefore no big choice (go wityh what you know).

I think it is a suicidal strategy to endorse Bush this way to pander to the center righties.


But what do I know? It's been the Dem's losing strategy for almost a decade and has worked axactly the way it was designed to work (to lose).

[seventhson]

44. PS

Look MLD -

I UNDERSTAND what he THINKS he is doing. I think he is wrong.

I am a trial attorney (among many other things, including an investigative journalist) -

and I have learned at least one very important lesson

Never say that your opponent is RIGHT about anything if you want to beat them.

Clinton is giving Bush Props and it sucks. He should not be giving him ANY propos at all and treating him like a peer. The guy is a Hitler-like war criminal far worse than Saddam or Osama in my view (from a historical perspective the Bushes have killed many more than Osama or Saddam could in their whole lives and the Bushes bear responsibility for their SUPPORT of Osama and Saddam when they were killing onnocents as well).

So this mealy-mouthed hommage and praise of Bush hurts way more than it could possible help and is, IMHO, nothing more than Clinton ego (and possible complicity w/BFEE)

Time will tell.

Mena/Stephens/Bush/Clinton/Google (will tell it all on my perspective on Clinton)

[Gyre]

40. Clinton is a jackass

How lame can you get? He's endorsing Bush's preemptive doctrine but says that we should've waited for Hans Blix to finish??? Well Bubba, Hans didn't find anything, remember? So what excuse (lie) would you have used to invade Iraq? What a duplicitous SOB. But he is being true to his southern-democrat colors and the DNC.

That's the only thing that puts me off about Edwards. He's another southern dem. His breed has done nothing but gut the heart of the democratic party by trying to out-conservative the republicans.

I know lots of you love Clinton but he was, and continues to be, nearly as off his rocker as Bush. Hillary will never get my vote.

Gyre

[treepig]

53. wow, something i agree with you on

hope i'm not coming down with vCJD or something . . .

[Media_Lies_Daily]

28. As far as what Clinton said about letting the UN inspectors finish....

...their job, what exactly was your specific problem with that statement? Here it is as you posted it:

"I would not have done it until after (former U.N. chief weapons inspector) Hans Blix finished his job."

What is Clinton actually saying in this statement? Is he REALLY stating that he would have gone to war once Blix was finished, regardless of the result of those inspections?

Or is he REALLY saying that the U. S. would have backed away from war once Blix stated that there were no WMDs? If you had been following the progress of the inspectors as closely as I had you would have known that Blix was NOT finding ANY WMDs and was leaning toward stating that Iraq, in fact, DID NOT HAVE ANY WMDs. That was why the NeoCons forced the inspectors out of Iraq by threatening war at any moment.

After watching Clinton closely for eight years, I know for a fact that he would NEVER have gone to war without absolute proof of WMDs. Remember, when Clinton was president he rebuffed the Pentagon NeoCons early in his presidency when they tried to convince him that he had to attack Iraq immediately.

Again, I'm not seeing where this is hurting Kerry at all.

[seventhson]

32. I think you are in denial

U said
"I'm not seeing where this is hurting Kerry at all."

I think you do not WANT to see it.

Hey - I LOVED the big guy too. But he hurts us ALL with this shit.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

34. I think you're the one that's trying very hard to fit a square peg...

...into a round hole. You seem to have forgotten how Clinton worked when he was President...his most recent comments are a perfect example of how he gave the GOP fits.

And no, I don't see how this is hurting Kerry because of what I pointed out in my post #27:

"Clinton is working the undecideds, those voters who are currently more conservative than the Democratic center-left and more liberal than the Republican center-right. This is where the election will be won or lost because the base voters on both political extremes will vote for their candidate no matter what."

I'm not seeing what you're describing because there is nothing of ANY substance to your commentary. In fact, some could say that some of YOUR remarks are FAR more divisive than anything Clinton has recently said for public consumption.

Again, you've done nothing to prove your point of view. IMHO, you've done far more to damage your own credibility than you have to damage the credibility of Clinton and/or any of his supporters on DU.

[sampsonblk]

45. If the truth hurts...

then those who are on the wrong side deserve all the pain they get.

[TomNickell]

30. Different Headlines....

Interesting to note the difference between this headline and the CNN headline on the same story.

CNN: Clinton backs his predecessor on Push to war. (or words to that effect).

[seventhson]

31. My point exactly

saying Bush was right and defending Bush from the left is where I have the problem with Clinton.

I agree that CLINTON would not have gone to war -- but he is implicitly saying BUSH was RIGHT to do so.

Is that so hard to understand?

Why is Clinton DEFENDING Bush from "the left"?

The perception is clear that Clinton thinks Bush was RIGHT

I think he is full of sh*t, persoanlly, and much more right wing than we suspect or will admit to ourselves.

I think Kerry may be more liberal and Gore was more liberal still (which is WHY I think Clinton is HELPING Bush here)

I do NOT understand it other than that Clinton is being a dick and we are just getting a glimpse of his dark side which has led, at least in my opinion and in large part, to the hell we have now.

Thast os my opinion and you are free to disagree.

But you will be wrong.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

35. Incredible.

[BayCityProgressive]

36. Clinton was an

empire builder too..why is this surprising?

[seventhson]

43. Not too incredible to many here

who are dedicated to defeating Bush and embracing peace as a global security strategy

[sendero]

37. Sorry Bill....

... but here's another case where you are simply full of it.

There was no case for going into Iraq, and after the weapons inspectors "finished" there would have been even less of one.

You don't have to triangulate any more, you are no longer in office.

[leesa]

38. That's Right. Both Dems and Republicans planned to steal the oil

Just a matter of when.

[DemonFighterLives]

47. As much as I like Clinton

It is this same type of War rah rah that Kerry displays that hurts my democratic heart. I don't know how the strategy of supporting this illegal war will make anyone look good especially on the world stage.
Fine if Kerry runs on supporting the war if that is what the brains say to do, but to be a real democrat, he must revert back to diplomacy after inauguration.

[scared]

48. I'm sorry, but I can't respect anyone..........

Who thinks we should invade a sovereign nation who has no way of threatening us, let alone his neighbors. Hitler did that. You would think Clinton would know better, but obviously he is just as corrupt as the neocons.

[tedzbear]

50. No! Bush was wrong, period!

Clinton is an imperialist of the same ilk as Bush. He is disgusting.

:puke:

[Disturbed]

51. A backhanded statement.

"Blix was NOT finding ANY WMDs and was leaning toward stating that Iraq, in fact, DID NOT HAVE ANY WMDs. That was why the NeoCons forced the inspectors out of Iraq by threatening war at any moment."

B. Clinton's statement did not actually endorse the invasion of Iraq, yet the Media grabs onto it like it does. The statement is clever but the Media twists it to mean that it endorses Bush. B. Clinton's statement actually means that the Iraq invasion was not warrented because of the qualifier. On the other hand shoud he have known how the Media would twist it to mean what it actually does not? He should have said that he won't comment on that decision to invade Iraq but he likes to show the world how clever he is.