Posted on 01/31/2006 8:31:23 PM PST by anymouse
Democrats may claim victim status for unintended consequences, but at the end of the day, their policies have ultimately produced our current problems with the Axis-of-Evil and their nukes.
One only need go back to the Carter administration to reveal the ugly facts.
Between World War II and 1979, Iran was the model of progressive Middle Eastern modernity and was undeniably our strongest ally within the Muslim world.
However, after Carter’s election, he decided the Shah didn’t measure up to human-rights standards.
A leftist mainstream media campaign ran stories of Iranian government-sponsored torture while willfully neglecting to report the Soviet influence and the nature of the enemy facing Iran.
After Carter cut the Shah off at the knees, the world was introduced to Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Republic and 444 days of America held hostage. On the other hand, the Carter period did give us Billy Beer and a presidential rabbit attack.
After America’s period of Democrat malaise, Presidents Reagan and Bush (41) were elected.
Their legacies in brief: U.S. hostages released, Libya abated, won Cold War, Soviet Union disintegrated, won first Gulf War and eliminated the U.S. military’s mollifying experience of Vietnam.
Then the American electorate fell prey to the prevarications of a two-term, skirt chasing, didn’t inhale, draft dodging, military loathing, don’t ask don’t tell, scandal-ridden deceiver from Arkansas, who worked hard to undo U.S. political capital earned during the previous 12 years.
Clinton failed to recognize the first World Trade Center bombing as an attack, and his indecisiveness became well-known in Somalia, which later motivated the movie “Black Hawk Down.”
This episode became a public relations victory for al-Qaida and its impetus to strike future U.S. assets.
Clinton ordered missile strikes that offered little in the way of real results.
Al-Qaida’s newly emboldened stance led to the U.S. embassy bombing in Africa, the Khobar Towers bombing and the attack on the USS Cole, to name a few.
Clinton’s legacy recorded scandal after scandal on top of scandal. On the other hand, Clinton failed to dismiss and/or stop Carter from traveling to North Korea to make a deal that would later result in a North Korean nuclear program and the weapons derived there from.
Before Sept. 11, President George W. Bush took on the Chinese Communists and secured the release of a naval surveillance crew.
Shortly after Sept. 11, with patriotic bravado, President Bush declared that the enemy would hear from us, and he later went on to prophetically expose the Axis-of-Evil. In spite of Democrat and world-leftist cowardice and condemnation, President Bush declared the War on Terrorism.
Undeniable results have produced the world’s only successful invasion of Afghanistan, removal of the Taliban, the successful invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein and an al-Qaida on the run and in hiding.
One should also note France’s newfound willingness to lob nukes and the more recent Canadian electorate declaration of red-state status.
If not for Democrat interloping, we would already by drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and moving toward Social Security reform.
The clear divide in legacies couldn’t be clearer, and no manner of historical revisionism can change the truth.
Shawn Christopher Phillips lives in Texas City.
I like this article so far and I just read the title. Back to reading...
Don't forget Clinton's excursion (missile strikes and random bombing) into Kosovo...
Hey, the Shah was no saint... but the Mullahs are worse.
Shawn Christopher Phillips seems like he has his head screwed on right!
The rat party needs to be outlawed and banned.
The mutawahs' (religious police) were tip of the spear. Picture old men in robes walking around tapping ax handles on the ground as they strode around. I think they saw themselves as mid east buford pussers.
Finished. Great article.
This expose' represents merely the tip of the berg. The Socialists are far, far more dangerous than people realize.
And to think I have had people here try to dispute my tag line.
About the only time that the philanderer-in-chief failed to acheive penetration.
Carter's well deserved reward for this lunacy was the embassy hostage crisis, which cost Carter the presidency in a landslide. Prior to Carter, Iran was a vital US ally with naval bases, etc.
Shawn Christopher Phillips gets it right!
Now if we can only make sure that in 2008 we get another Republican that will govern like Reagan and Geo. W. Bush.
I didn't read past this statement, since it is utter nonsense. Our troubles in Iran didn't start in 1979 -- they started in 1953 when the (Republican) Eisenhower administration authorized the CIA to overthrow the duly-elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. Anyone who is oblivious to this historical fact has no credibility on this subject.
| "If Bill Clinton had been a virgin, he would still have been the most immoral president in this country's history. In exchange for illegal campaign contributions from the government of China, he allowed the Chinese to buy American technology, which now makes them capable of hitting American cities with nuclear missiles." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell, HERE |
| "The Clinton administration's legacy may be that it restarted the Cold War just to perpetuate itself in office. [Thanks to Clinton] the Chinese now have everything they need [in nuclear weaponry and missile guidance technology] to make the world an unsafer place." -- Cal Thomas |
| See Chip Bok's "Clinton at the Bank of China Drive Thru" cartoon HERE. |
| "My characterization of Bill Clinton is that he is the most successfuI adolescent I have ever known. ... I have known Bill Clinton a long time and spent a lot of time with him, more than I wanted to. I have never been able to accept Bill Clinton as a mature, responsible adult." -- retiring House Majority Leader Dick Armey to Chris Matthews on the "Hardball College Tour" at George Mason University 9-25-2002 |
| "[Bill Clinton is] timid, indecisive, wishy-washy, and a chameleon who tries too hard to get everyone to love him." -- John Brummett, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
| "I found myself marveling at Mr. Clinton's thinking, which in the short term was savvy and in the long term spoke of a kind of moral retardation." -- Peggy Noonan |
| "The chaos and paralysis of the Clinton presidency reflect the chaos and paralysis of Bill Clinton's mind. ... But Clinton is not separable from the chaos. It is his chaos. Left to his own devices, Clinton always generates chaos around him." -- Edith Efron, Reason, Nov., 1994 |
| "When you walk into the presidency as a fully formed adult your first thought is, 'What should I do first and how and when?' When you walk into it with more vanity than sense, more hunger than purpose, your first thought is of what history will say of you. ... Mr. Clinton spent all his time thinking about his legacy, and by the end he had one: He was the president who spent his time thinking about his legacy -- while Osama made his plans. He wasted history's time." -- Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal and HERE. |
| “Aside from scandals and investigations, [former FBI Director Louis] Freeh says Clinton let down the American people and the families of victims of the 1996 Khobar Towers terror attack in Saudi Arabia. “After promising to bring to justice those responsible for the bombing that killed 19 and injured hundreds, Freeh says Clinton refused to personally ask Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to allow the FBI to question bombing suspects the kingdom had in custody — the only way the bureau could secure the interviews, according to Freeh. “Freeh writes in the book [My FBI], 'Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudis’ reluctance to cooperate and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library.' ” -- 60 Minutes, Oct. 6, 2005 |
| Interview On Orange TV 7-15-2003: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: "We didn't need to have 9-11. 9-11 happened because during the last administration Mr. Clinton didn't do his job. I was just talking to an ambassador from Sudan who tried to give us all of the records on bin Laden. He had all of the details of the entire terrorist network, and Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton personally turned it down -- wouldn't even let the FBI copy them!" Rep. Tom Feeney: "In fairness, they were busy building nuclear plants for North Korea." Rep. Rohrabacher: "Right. Precisely." |
| "Remember, Osama Bin Laden was offered to the United States on a silver platter and the Clinton administration said no." -- Neal Boortz, 3-2-2004 HERE and: "A former CIA official told NBC News last week that [Clinton] White House orders to spare Bin Laden's life cut the chances of getting him in half. Once again, they viewed terrorism as a law enforcement problem, worrying about Bin Laden's rights instead of just unleashing the CIA to exterminate him." -- Boortz, 3-25-2004 HERE |
| "I've been to Sudan. And I was in Khartoum and met with some of the higher- ranking people with the Sudanese government. They told me personally -- I had heard that before -- that they actually offered [him] up to the Clinton administration -- that is, Osama bin Laden -- if they wanted him." -- Sen. Richard Shelby of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to Chris Matthews 7-22-2004 |
| "At the time, 1996, [bin Laden] had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America." -- W.J. Clinton as quoted by Mansoor Ijaz in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times Dec 5, 2001 |
| "No president did more to ignore the mounting threat of Islamic terrorism than did Bill Clinton, and 3,000 people paid for his policies with their lives." -- Neal Boortz, 8-10-2005 |
Didn't Mossadegh immediately prove himself to be an international criminal by stealing all the oilfields and oil facilities first?
Not to mention his outstanding success in Haiti!
In either case, there was absolutely no reason for the U.S. government to basically help serve as the guarantor of British Petroleum's investments in the Middle East.
How about India and Pakistan getting nukes during the 90's. Also, Khomeini was in Paris the whole time waiting for the Shah to get overthrown thereby replace American influence in the Mideast with France pushing the US into the Saudi corner. And don't forget Carter's anemic response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan - the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
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