The Cole was bombed on October 12, 2000, Bush coddled the Taliban all 2001

[dpbrown]

Some are failing to draw a distinction between the aid Clinton provided to Afghanistan in 2000 against Bush's coddling of the Taliban (for the UNOCAL oil pipeline) in 2001.

There are serious problems with that conflation.

As mentioned in the title, the Cole was bombed on October 12, 2000, but blame was not certified to al qaeda, being sheltered by the Taliban, until December of 2000. That's all of 2000. Clinton was completely justified in providing aid to Afghanistan when he did. The point is that once the attack had been certified to al qaeda, in December of 2000, and attack plans drawn up to hit al qaeda in Afghanistan in order to break it up, Bush, in his zeal to completely overturn or reverse anything Clinton had done, turned to a policy of appeasement instead, with the disasterous result that in September of 2001, after Bush had made himself the world's largest supporter of the Taliban (certified by the Clinton Administration as sheltering al qaeda), and having sat on what now turns out to be Clinton's prescient attack plan to disrupt al qaeda to prevent further attacks, a wheat-stuffed and fully monetized al qaeda hit the United States (not that the August 6, 2001, presidential daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" hadn't made it even more crystal clear).

Bush sought a policy of appeasement with a rogue government certified as sheltering a terrorist enemy that had already attacked the U.S. by bombing the Cole.

Any aid Clinton had provided in 2000 is irrelevant, because this certification didn't take place until December. Bush was handed attack plans for Afghanistan and sat on them, throwing away the opportunity that Clinton would have acted upon to disrupt al qaeda and prevent the attacks on the United States. He was even warned in August that the attack was coming at home and still did nothing, after having made his administration the world's largest supporter of the Taliban in 2001.

See this link for earlier discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2235310

[GCP]

1. Looks like you have 2000 where 2001 should be

At least, I'm hoping this is the case

[dpbrown]

2. Nope. Bush knew al qaeda was in Afghanistan and gave them $43 million

He knew that Afghanistan was certified as having a rogue government sheltering terrorists who had attacked the United States, with a Clinton administration attack plan for Afghanistan in his hands, and he gave them money and wheat and aid instead, nurturing the little al qaedites so they could grow up and become suicide attackers on planes that according to Condi Rice no one could imagine and blow up Americans on American soil, just like it said in the August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief.

[geek tragedy]

3. Sorry, but criticizing Bush for giving food aid to starving people

is not a principled approach.

[dpbrown]

5. Except it's not to "starving people" it's to the al qaeda who are there

It's to appease the Taliban after the Clinton administration put together a plan to disrupt al qaeda that would have stopped 9/11.

[GCP]

4. nevermind

my mistake
continue to charge!

[dpbrown]

6. I will indeed

Bush coddled the Taliban.