Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel: Clinton Would Have Gone Into Iraq, Too

NewsMax ^ | 12/28/05

[areafiftyone]

Broadcast veterans Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel agree that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he were still president in 2003.

Appearing on "Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, Brokaw and Koppel also agreed that the press shouldn't be judged too harshly for not pursuing questions about claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

According to a transcript appearing in Editor & Publisher, Koppel defended the media’s treatment of the WMD claims:

KOPPEL: In large measure, when the president and his top people tell you, as they did, "Here's our perception of what exists. Here's our perception of the danger to the United States. Here's our perception of a relationship between this guy who has weapons of mass destruction and the group that just blew up the Pentagon and the World Trade Center," I don't know that reporters as a whole can sit there and say, "Oh, hokum. You know, it's just not true ... "

BROKAW: The French intelligence were sharing the same conclusions with the administration. I thought – I agree with you that I don't think that we pushed hard enough for vigorous debate. I think that on Capitol Hill that the debate was anemic, at best ...

RUSSERT: [Congress was] not questioning whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

BROKAW: No. No. No.

RUSSERT: That seemed to be a uniformly held belief.

BROKAW: Right. Yeah.

KOPPEL: Nor did the Clinton administration beforehand.

BROKAW: No.

KOPPEL: I mean, the only difference between the Clinton administration and the Bush administration was 9/11.

BROKAW: Right.

KOPPEL: If 9/11 had happened on Bill Clinton's watch, he would have gone into Iraq.

BROKAW: Yeah. Yeah.

[al baby]

Bull Chips

[Owl_Eagle]

.

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

[mewzilla]

Bubba wouldn't even go after bin Laden or rescind the EO on assassination.

[areafiftyone]

LOL
THAT is the Only reason Clinton would go into Iraq! LOL

[digger48]

Let the rewriting of history continue.

[joonbug]

Clinton probably would have gone to war against Iraq. After all, a war is a great thing for one's legacy and that was his priority. Better for Bill than his bombing of the Balkans.

[Texas Eagle]

...Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he were still president in 2003.

Damn the luck. If only terrorists would've attacked the World Trade Center when Clinton was President.

Oh....wait a minute....

[Gay State Conservative]

I guarantee that within 24 hors,The Most Ethical president In History will both confirm and refute their comments... on orders from The Former Twelfth Lady.

[wmileo]

Clinton told a group of journalist outside the US recently that going to Iraq was a mistake. Since Clinton,(according to the MSM), does not make mistakes, he would not have gone to Iraq. 9/11 was no different that the 1993 bombing of the WTC. The only difference was that the 1993 bomb was a dud while 9/11 was not. At this point I don't know who is the biggest liar; Clinton , Brokaw, Koppel or Russert.

[Fawn]

It would of depended on which way the wind was blowing......

[winner3000]

We don't need conjecture to figure out what Clinton's reaction would be: After terrorists tried to blow up the WTC in '93 he did nothing.

[caisson71]

Brokow and Koppel wouldn't know reality anymore now than they did when they were at the top of their game. They're just a bunch of never beens.

[Soul Seeker]

Shh...that's an inconvenient detail.

The MSM now senses Iraq is an asset for Bush so they want Clinton in on it. Nevermind Clinton's been on record talking out both sides of his mouth about he would/wouldn't have done the same thing.

We can answer this for the MSM. Clinton a) wouldn't have had the guts b) if he had done it he would have withdrawn when the first poll went South and left a bigger mess then existed before.

Lastly, only in an MSM bubble would they attempt to sell us a bill of goods that the only difference between the administrations was 9-11. I responded to this in anothe rthread on the same topic, won't go there again, but we can all spend hours detailing the differences between this administration dealing with domestic and foreign policy, treatment of their "political" enemies and basic characters of the occupants.

[Soul Seeker]

Nor did they react to the U.S.S. Cole and other terrorism on his watch. As well, their response to saddam was continued U.N. sanctions and letting our planes get shot at.

Koppel and Brokaw need to get out of their fictionial world and acknowledge Clinton was hit with challenges on lesser scale that give us insight into his response. Going to war against Iraq with the UN. balking at enforcing its own resolution never would have happened...unless he needed a distraction for another Monica. And even then he'd never have stuck by them once his latest scandel died down.

[meowmeow]

...Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he were still president in 2003.

Damn the luck. If only terrorists would've attacked the World Trade Center when Clinton was President.

Oh....wait a minute....

Worth repeating!

[rightinthemiddle]

Good one.

[johnny7]

Liars... both of them.

NO Dem would have gone into Iraq... that goes for Lieberman too.

[karnage]

Everybody's missing the point: for the last year, the media has been hammering President Bush by saying he misled the nation into an illegal war. Now two of its most familiar faces are saying their beloved Man From Hope would have done exactly the same thing.

In a single casual exchange, Brokaw and Koppel have swept away the entire "Bush Lied People Died" argument.

Breathtaking.

[dfwgator]

I remember reading how Clinton envied FDR, and wanting a war for his legacy as well. That explains Kosovo.

[Howlin]

Broadcast veterans Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel agree that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he were still president in 2003.

Appearing on "Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, Brokaw and Koppel also agreed that the press shouldn't be judged too harshly for not pursuing questions about claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

See how quickly they did that? Took care of two problems in two paragraphs.

Lying A$$holes.

[Howlin]

Remember reading after 9-11 that he was ENVIOUS of Bush for having a "great moment in history" to deal with?

I'm sick to death of hearing about that SOB.

[monkeybrau]

The inmates over at DUh are near apoplectic over this. They can't decide if the republican congress would have stopped Clinton, or if Brokaw and friends are just hard neo-con shills! I find banter among lunatics fascinating.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2009219

[HardStarboard]

>>>If only terrorists would've attacked the World Trade Center when Clinton was President.

Oh....wait a minute <<<

1993 Bingo to you!

[ANGGAPO]

I am sure that's true, and a flock of cows just flew past my window too.

[Kewlhand`tek]

a du post 73. Clinton would have caught Bin Laden!

but he didn't!!!

[libs_kma]

Exactly what alternate reality does Koppel exist in these days?

[Delphster]

Did they have aspirin factories?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

From DU:
"Bill Was almost Obsessed with A possible Terror Strike

It was his administration that tried to warn Dumb-ass of a possible strike in the US. But then again asshole and his Neo-Cons World Domination Nazi club wanted it to happen. They even stated that they needed a Pearl Harbor for an excuse to invade Iraq.

Bush still doesn't seem to be that concern with the real threat, but sure talks the talk. His actions say otherwise. And instead of doing job, he chooses to use terror as a way to install a corporate fascist dictatorship."

BWAHAHAHAHA!

[Jeff Chandler]

Clinton Would Have Gone Into Iraq, Too

Clinton stated that, unfortunately, he never had the pleasure of meeting Turique Iraq, as she was interning in a different part of the White House.

[neither]

"If you are the kind of person who is inspired by either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, then you are probably the kind of person who was inspired by their high school princepal."

-Lewis Black

[BigSkyFreeper]

Remember reading after 9-11 that he was ENVIOUS of Bush for having a "great moment in history" to deal with?

Clinton and the media have been wishing that a 9/11 had occured on Clinton's watch.

How EFFEN twisted is that? The last thing I would hope or wish for is another 9/11.

The left as a whole and their sycophants in the media see every moment of somber reflection, loss of life, valiant heroism and greatness of leadership this country has come upon in the last 40 years through the obscured prism of "political expediency".

The Clinton's are an embarrassment, if not a travesty. Their hunger for power is enough to remind every sane person that the left deserves to be a minority for generations to come.

This country, in all it's history, didn't become the country it is through sheer arrogance, elitism, or acts of selfishness.

[BigSkyFreeper]

The left is DUmber than a box of rocks. They don't even know it, but they continue to connect Iraq with the WOT by simply insisting "Bush did this to accomplish that", well DUh!!

[ottersnot]

Yeah, too bad that terrorists didn't attack the US, or it's interests, a few times under Clintoon so that she could have show everyone who's boss.

WTC1

Khobar Towers

USS Kohl

2 embassies in Afria

I know I'm leaving several out here....

[Mia T]

Damn the luck. If only terrorists would've attacked the World Trade Center when Clinton was President.

Oh....wait a minute....---Texas Eagle

One of the American historians I most admire, Douglas Brinkley out there, sitting here, was quoted in the paper today as saying that I would be viewed as a great president except for the fact of the impeachment, which is just there.

bill clinton
Hofstra apologia
November 11, 2005

clinton's ranking will likely get worse over time. Economic issues fade in importance. Moral issues presist and grow. (paraphrase)

Douglas Brinkley
February 2000
(discussing C-SPAN PRESIDENTS POLL)
Washington Journal

Note that although Brinkley doesn't place much importance on the economic management dimension--he argues that the economy variable is not durable over time--he fails to recognize that the evaluation of the clinton economy by the historians is erroneous to begin with.

Note also that C-SPAN historians found no evidence of clinton "greatness" irrespective of his moral-authority deficit, contrary to Douglas Brinkley's claim made at the clinton revisionist confab³.

(NOTE: My later research has revealed that Brinkley's qualified mention of clinton "greatness" was not a claim but rather a polite guest's white lie about an abject loser. Instead of taking the AP report at face value, one must carefully parse Brinkley's actual words and especially note the subjunctive construction.)

Mia T, 11.10.05
Historian massages clinton numbers, ego + legacy at revisionist confab
C-SPAN historians find no clinton "greatness" irrespective of moral-authority deficit

The term "great" is probably an overused term. There are only a few presidents who make that top tier: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Thomas Jefferson, and a few others who might be there.

I don't think bill clinton ever reached that category.

One, it's hard if you're not a wartime president

Note to Douglas Brinkley (NTDB):
clinton WAS a wartime president. The problem is, he surrendered.

Preemptively.

You might say the clinton approach to The War on Terror was the perverse obverse of The Bush Doctrine.

or have some huge event.

NTDB:
clinton had one almost immediately, which he summarily ignored, the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, the 1993 WTC bombing.

Do you recall that he urged us to ignore the bombing, too? Ignore the first major Islamofascist terrorist attack on the continental United States?!

Did you know clinton never visited the site? (And he was only 15 minutes away mere days after the bombing. He chose, instead, to give some forgettable speech on --what else? -- the economy.)

 

Second, clinton is not known for something like Lyndon Johnson was -- The Civil Rights Act -- or even Theodore Roosevelt and conservation, or one big thing.

I think his successes were in welfare reform, economic discipline,trade pacts.

NTDB:
Arguable. He was dragged kicking and screaming by the Republicans.

Those are achievements, but they're hard to get people queuing up a hundred years from now excited to see the "NAFTA Pen Under Glass."

NTDB:
Great turn of phrase.

Douglas Brinkley
Nov. 12, 2005
The History News Network
Refuting clinton's Hofstra-apologia "Brinkley" lie

The clintons continue to imperil virtually every sector of society, indeed, continue to imperil America and the world, with their exponentially increasing facility in manipulating electoral/policy matter and energy at ever smaller scales. Their "school uniforms" of the '90s became "nanotech uniforms" today; both are proxies for "fight terrorism," which the clintons have neither the stomach nor the know-how to do.

NANO-PRESIDENT
the danger of the unrelenting smallness of bill + hillary clinton
by Mia T, 7.31.05

LEHRER: President Bush, your closing statement, sir.

PRESIDENT BUSH (audio): Three weeks from now--two weeks from tomorrow, America goes to the polls and you're going to have to decide who you want to lead this country ...

On foreign affairs, some think it's irrelevant. I believe it's not. We're living in an interconnected world...And if a crisis comes up, ask who has the judgment and the experience and, yes, the character to make the right decision?

And, lastly, the other night on character Governor Clinton said it's not the character of the president but the character of the presidency. I couldn't disagree more. Horace Greeley said the only thing that endures is character. And I think it was Justice Black who talked about great nations, like great men, must keep their word.

And so the question is, who will safeguard this nation, who will safeguard our people and our children? I need your support, I ask for your support. And may God bless the United States of America.

(Applause)

COMPLETE ARTICLE

AFTERWORD: ON CLINTON SMALLNESS--BRINKLEY MISSES THE POINT
by Mia T, 12.27.05

also: THE FAILED, DYSFUNCTIONAL CLINTON PRESIDENCY
(DECONSTRUCTING CLINTON'S HOFSTRA SPEECH)
part1: The "Brinkley" Lie
by Mia T, 12.26.05

 

 

 

[beyond the sea]

At this point I don't know who is the biggest liar; Clinton , Brokaw, Koppel or Russert.

A dead heat ........... a four-way tie.

[cincinnati65]

Honestly, do they just have a random word generator coming up with these posts? I mean, I guess it's legitimate as long as you:

a) call the President a disparaging name
b)include the word Nazi
c) include the word Facist
d) make sure the word Corporate is in close proximity to b) or c)
e) accuse the President of some master plan to take over all the world's oil (so his buddies can get rich, don'tyaknow.

I think that covers at least 80% of the posts I see over there.

[wmileo]

Not if the President is CLINTON.

[cincinnati65]

I'm sorry. My post applies only to a Conservative/Republican President.

[wmileo]

You are right on about that.