What a joke.
Posted on 09/10/2006 11:05:56 AM PDT by Dems_R_Losers
On June 25, 1996, a powerful truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, tearing the front from the building, blasting a crater 35 feet deep, and killing 19 American soldiers. Hundreds more were injured. When news reached Washington, President Bill Clinton vowed to bring the killers to justice. "The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished," he said angrily. "Let me say again: We will pursue this. America takes care of our own. Those who did it must not go unpunished." The next day, leaving the White House to attend an economic summit in France, Clinton had more tough words for the attackers. "Let me be very clear: We will not resist" — the president corrected himself — "we will not rest in our efforts to find who is responsible for this outrage, to pursue them and to punish them."
As Clinton spoke, his top political strategist, Dick Morris, was hard at work conducting polls to gauge the public's reaction to the bombing. "Whenever there was a crisis, I ordered an immediate poll," Morris recalls. "I was concerned about how Clinton looked in the face of [the attack] and whether people blamed him." The bombing happened in the midst of the president's re-election campaign, and even though Clinton enjoyed a substantial lead over Republican Bob Dole, Morris worried that public dissatisfaction with Clinton on the terrorism issue might benefit Dole.
Indeed, Morris's first poll showed less support for Clinton than he had hoped. But by the time Morris presented his findings to the president and top staffers at a political-strategy meeting a few days later, public approval of Clinton's response had climbed — something Morris noted in his written agenda for the session:
SAUDI BOMBING — recovered from Friday and looking great
Approve Clinton handling 73-20
Big gain from 63-20 on Friday
Security was adequate 52-40
It's not Clinton's fault 76-18
The numbers were a relief for the re-election team. But soon there was another crisis when, on July 17, TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its way from New York to Paris. There was widespread suspicion that the crash was the result of terrorism (it was later ruled to be an accident), and Morris's polling found the public growing uneasy not only about air safety but also about Clinton's performance in the Khobar investigation. Morris found that the number of people who believed Clinton was "doing all he can to investigate the Saudi bombing and punish those responsible" was just 54 percent, while 32 percent believed he could do more. Morris feared that White House inaction would allow Dole to portray Clinton as soft on national security.
"We tested two alternative defenses to this attack: Peace maker or Toughness," Morris wrote in a memo for the president. In the "Peacemaker" defense, Morris asked voters to respond to the statement, "Clinton is peacemaker. Brought together Arabs and Israelis. Ireland. Bosnia cease fire. Uses strength to bring about peace." The other defense, "Tough ness," asked voters to respond to "Clinton tough. Stands up for American interests. Against foreign companies doing business in Cuba. Sanctions against Iran. Anti-terrorist legislation held up by Republicans. Prosecuted World Trade Center bombers." Morris found that the public greatly preferred "Toughness."
So Clinton talked tough. But he did not act tough. Indeed, a review of his years in office shows that each time the president was confronted with a major terrorist attack — the February 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center, the Khobar Towers attack, the August 7, 1998, bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole — Clinton was preoccupied with his own political fortunes to an extent that precluded his giving serious and sustained attention to fighting terrorism.
At the time of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, his administration was just beginning, and he was embroiled in controversies over gays in the military, an economic stimulus plan, and the beginnings of Hillary Clinton's health-care task force. Khobar Towers happened not only in the midst of the president's re-election campaign but also at the end of a month in which there were new and damaging developments in the Whitewater and Filegate scandals. The African embassy attacks occurred as the Monica Lewinsky affair was at fever pitch, in the month that Clinton appeared before independent counsel Kenneth Starr's grand jury. And when the Cole was rammed, Clinton had little time left in office and was desperately hoping to build his legacy with a breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Whenever a serious terrorist attack occurred, it seemed Bill Clinton was always busy with something else.
(more at link)
See what all the Dems protests have stirred up?
What a joke.
RUN, FORREST,uha BUBBA RUN!
an EXCELLENT companion piece for tonight's 9-11 movie.
thank you, Dems!
Like a midnight walk through a cemetary, every headstone a reminder of what the 90s were really like.
don't miss this
Ugh. Why did he wait so long to attempt a rescue mission? In addition, I have read that his Secretary of State , Cyrus Vance, actually resigned in protest over the rescue mission! Can you imagine such a thing?
You can't help wondering why Morris and others like him didn't simply walk out of the White House and never go back. He could have disappeared into anonymity, not told Hill and cronies he couldn't breathe that foul air one more minute. Where was his conscience? What kind of people get up every morning and go to work hiding the the fact that their boss and his wife are sociopaths? I know...Liberals. It started from day one with the White House travel office, then Foster's murder, stolen FBI files and God knows what all.
hey clean it up.......
al queda aggregated.....while monica fellated!!!!
yeah.. that's the ticket!!!!
You are right. Perot drained off enough votes to make Clinton a winner.
Kind of says it all and why he and his backers are pressuring ABC. Little willie had hoped that his negotiations in the middle east, his negotiations with North Korea, and his tough talk (and lack of action)would counter act the impeachment/Monica footnote in history.
Now he knows that he did nothing to resolve the middle east that he help arm North Korea and that his role in supporting other terrorism, especially in looking the other way on OBM is all going to come out.
Wait until the press starts looking into Iraq and Bill pardoning of the the financial crook who profited from Saddam's oil for food kickbacks and probably shared some of that kickback money with Bill Clinton.
Clinton was probably one of the most intellectually gifted and eloquent crooks ever in the history of world leadership. History will ultimately set the story straight.
bttt
Thanks for the ping. He never even visited the WTC after the attack in 1993.
Perhaps more interesting, I watched a Canadian Broadcast Corporation show earlier in the evening that was the time line prior to 9/11. It also cast stones at the Clinton Administration.
Very interesting. I wonder what the media will be saying over the next week.
The world can't be reminded of that enough, IMO.
Thank you!
Conversely, if Perot had stayed in the race from beginning to end, rather than on-again, off-again, on-again, the blot we know as "the Clintons" would never have stained the nation (the state of Arkansas, yes, but the nation, no...)
the infowarrior
.
Thank you, dc2000, you are so correct.
In the process of my taking the time needed on the internet and talk radio/TV to constantly remind our fellow Americans about the 3 Free Offers that the enemy within CLINTONS personally refused ...to bring OSAMA bin LADEN here before he could hit us hard on American soil,
...some things had to be sacrificed:
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
Just for the LOVE of it..!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Too funny!!
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