Clinton: Timing of Iraq Attack Was Wrong

[GreenPartyVoter]

NEW YORK (AP) - The Bush administration made a mistake by invading Iraq before United Nations weapons inspectors finished their work, former President Bill Clinton said in advance of Tuesday's release of his memoir, "My Life."

In an interview to be published in Time magazine, he said that even though he didn't agree with the timing of the attack, he wants the Iraq invasion "to have been worth it."

"I think if you have a pluralistic, secure, stable Iraq, the people of Iraq will be better off, and it might help the process of internal reform in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere," Clinton said.

Terrorism festering in Iraq could make the lives of Iraqis worse than they had been under Hussein, Clinton said in a "60 Minutes" interview to be broadcast Sunday.

More: http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040620/D83AREP00.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Here Come Da Greens!

Here Come Da Greens!
Here Come Da Greens!
Order in the Forum, 'cause
Here Come Da Greens!

--bkl
Ladies and Gents, Laugh-In Looks at the News!

[sendero]

2. And the timing of this thread is wrong..

... this has been covered as nauseum it at least 4 other threads.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

3. No no this is very interesting

and here's why. Compare the article from apnews the original poster gave us to this article from CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/index.html

Even the headlines give you a different picture of what he said. Very interesting.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. This snippet is a bit disturbing to me

"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," Clinton said in a Time magazine interview that will hit newsstands Monday, a day before the publication of his book "My Life." --Clinton


If he was supportive of the inspections being completed, then how was he also supportive of *, who was completely against that?

[madfloridian]

6. Clinton supported this war, yet he was bombing the country into oblivion.

I am sorry, but Clinton has always been for this Iraq invasion. I always thought this was just right wing spin, as most of the criticism of him is. However, there is no denying it....he was for it.

[Jacobin]

9. It's a nice way of saying the obvious

That if the inspectors had continued, there wouldn't have been a need for the invasion since the WMD's had obviously all been destroyed.

But, yeah, it kinda limps me out too.

[disinfo_guy]

5. Bush's "timing" was so the GOP would win the 2002 elections

They had to get their war on to keep everyone scared after 911. If the Republicans had run on their economic and domestic policies (snicker) they would have lost both houses of Congress. So instead they ran on war and really thought they could get away with it. The result is a biblical level disaster for the United States, not to mention the poor Iraqis.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Welcome to DU. :^)

You are right. This admin is all about using fear to keep the masses in line.

Which makes me very nervous about what may be coming next. :(

[Jacobin]

8. "Explains Himself"???!!?!?!?!?!?

What in the ever loving Fuck has he got to "explain". Oops, sorry, I erased the deficit and got a surplus. Oh, and please excuse me for not starting a stupid, unwinnable war. And for gawd's sake, I'm really really really sorry we caught the millinium bomber guys who were going to blow up LAX.

Oh, and I know I should have pushed some faith based shit to help erode the separation of church and state, but jeeze, I just didn't have time!!

Another thing...I couldn't find enough dingbat RW sycophants to appoint to appeal courts, so please forgive me.

I swear, the media in this country has gone from godawful propaganda to the right of Ghengis Khan. Fuck em one and all.

[madfloridian]

10. Clinton on Bush lie about uranium..."Everybody makes mistakes."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/23/clinton.iraq.sotu/

SNIP..."WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House, attacked by critics for a now-retracted line about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa in President Bush's State of the Union address, has gotten some surprising support from former President Clinton.

"I thought the White House did the right thing in just saying 'we probably shouldn't have said that,' " Clinton told CNN's Larry King in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

"You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president," Clinton said. "I mean, you can't make as many calls as you have to make without messing up once in awhile. The thing we ought to be focused on is what is the right thing to do now. That's what I think."END SNIP...

Baloney, he should have said Bush should not have lied. It was NOT a mistake. Bush was told months earlier not to use it, and he did.