Military prowess owes debt to Clinton (Barf alert- the title pretty much speaks for itself)

The Capital Times ^ | January 9th, 2002 | Dave Zweifel

[sarcastro]

Those who wouldn't have a life if they couldn't hate Bill Clinton would surely object, but it has become quite apparent that Clinton didn't run our military forces into the ground during his eight years in office, as so many Republicans, including George W. himself, insisted during the 2000 campaign.

In fact, most objective observers would now admit that he left Bush with a military that is in pretty decent shape.

Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, addressed the issue over the weekend in the New York Times:

"Some might wish to give the young Bush administration and its impressive secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, primary credit for the performance of American forces in Afghanistan. The administration developed an effective war plan that defeated the Taliban and al-Qaida, and it has a sound broader strategy in the struggle against terrorism.

"But it is still Bill Clinton's military that has actually been winning this war. The Bush administration had barely started to make its mark on defense policy before hostilities in Afghanistan began. Last spring, it provided a $5 billion supplemental appropriation for the 2001 defense budget, but that constituted less than 2 percent of defense spending for the year and had hardly begun to be noticed before the war began."

O'Hanlon maintained that Clinton did not squander the military legacy that was left to him by the Reagan and senior Bush years.

"The performance of American forces in the Balkans in the late 1990s and in Afghanistan in 2001 has been outstanding. And the military has wielded new weapons and concepts in these recent campaigns that it did not possess during Desert Storm: several types of guided weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, near-real-time communication system," he said.

"Of course, the main credit for the quality of America's military must go to its own personnel. But the victory in Afghanistan, coming on the heels of the successful action against Serbia in 1999, shows that the Clinton administration maintained a strong and focused military able to carry out a post-cold war mission," O'Hanlon added.

Readers may remember that Rumsfeld was being criticized last summer for going too slow on reshaping the military. As it turned out, going slow was probably for the best.

Too bad the administration didn't take a little more time with the economy as well. Instead, Bush was hell bent on ramming through his tax cut, a maneuver that started giving the economy the jitters by late spring in 2001.

Had the healthy surplus, along with the tried and tested tax structure, still been there on Sept. 11, the impact could well have been much gentler.

[sarcastro]

This guy wants to give Clinton all the credit for our military campaign, yet he wants to blame BUSH for the economy?! There's something wrong with this guy's logic, to say the least. You can e-mail this clown at dzweifel@madison.com (it's on the web-page).

[GeronL]

this man is an idiot

[GeronL]

Barf alert!!

e-mail this fool.

[GeronL]

I was reading your scribble on the internet and a question formed.

If this is Clintons military, how can it be Bush's economy? Bush's first budget didn't go into effect until October after all.

Imagine the military we'd have if the last President didn't slash the military by 40%? If he didn't saddle it with social programs and social experiments....

The soldiers, sailors and pilots would certainly not agree with you.

[Rubber Duckie]

Let's see. Because Clinton didn't totally succeed in feminazifing the military, loading it with homosexuals, driving out those who would re-enlist and bombing asprin factories, he deserves credit for strengthing those who managed to survive his reign of terror? And when Greenspan started killing the stock market with a series of interest rate hikes beginning in February 2000 before Bush even had the nomination locked up, Bush should be blamed for the sour economy inherited from the previous regime? We should not even mention a further kick in the teeth to the economy by an ex-VP who couldn't accept an election outcome even while the market dived and America's status was ridiculed worldwide while he tried to manufacture enough votes to supplement those his operatives did election night

[Rain-maker]

My arse, that Clintoon-goon gave us (US Army) minimal raises, a lower readiness rate, a Grand Rudman Act implementation, shortages of spare parts, and a reduced morale to that of an ameoba.(I won't tell you about the greasy rabbit in the mess hall every Wednesday)

Grandpa Cheney is the man, and he knows that the U.S. armed forces go beyond head nods and back patting.

National security is in good hands now...thank heavens!~

p.s. Anyone sees that fornicating, adultering, impeached, bullshit artist....give hime a good kick in the nads from me!

[cardinal4]

Bill Clinton makes me want to puke.As for this author;just another liberal media Clinton condoner,aider and abettor.

[Consort]

A typical Democrat ploy:
Like a true Liberal, Clinton used and depleted the military and used the money for other (social) programs, so that future Republican Administrations would have to spend time and money to rebuild the military and appear to be unconcerned with other domestic issues.

[Lion Den Dan]

I have been employed by the Army throughout the Clinton reign. Soldiers have treated me as comrade, co-worker and Father Confessor.

Clintoon rean the military into the dirt.

[goldstategop]

Bill Clinton let our troops be slaughtered and let Osama run wild on his watch. He preferred to be serviced by Monica than look out for the national security of this country. Now that's the extent of the ex's cowardice and waaay to go Bill --- we all know your prowess had nothing to do with building up our military or making our nation safer. Now there's his REAL legacy.

[backhoe]

"Has that clinton "legacy" made you feel safer yet?"

Lest Americans ever forget why the clintons, and all their enablers need to be hectored, hounded, and harried into silence, until "clintonese is only spoken in Hell," look here:

The Holiday *Best* of Bill Clinton & his Friends!

-clintonism in one easy lesson--

-"until clintonese is spoken only in Hell!"--

---

Like the chains on Marley's Ghost

The "clinton legacy" has been forged one sordid link at a time....

Madison Society - Slick Willy
... THE CLINTON TIME LINE. The Etherzone provides, in one location, all the events
of the Clinton Ongoing Corruption from 1977 through 2000. Read more. ...

CLINTON'S ROGUES GALLERY:
... And that gets to my second chart, Mr. Speaker, which is the time line.....Up until
1993, Mr. Speaker, under Democrats and Republican Presidents alike, there ...

The Holiday *Best* of Bill Clinton & his Friends!

The Cost of Life (Clinton/Gore Sellout of Security for Campaign Contributions) **FR EXCLUSIVE** #2

-DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON --

[monkeyshine]

You know, the newspaper publishing industry has been going through a rough time lately. In the effort to contain their costs, they are hiring more half-wits to do the work that was once done by hard working, fair, critical thinkers. They are ultimately doomed because they are tied to the old economy and react to their needs resulting from being so tied to it... so the new economy will leave them in the dust. I used to subscribe to newspapers, now I save a tree, and save myself a lot of stress by only reading these dumb articles in a place where I can publish my 'letters to the editor' instantly!

[Chi-townChief]

This is really more of a LAUGH than Barf alert. You can imagine what a piggish buffoon Mr. Zweifel must be to write this with a straight face.

[RckyRaCoCo]

You can imagine what a piggish buffoon Mr. Zweifel must be to write this with a straight face.

Piggish? Wasn't there a pig called Arnold Zweifel? Oh, now I get it. Never mind.

[Braak]

The libidiot gift for self delusion is PRICELESS! It's given me hours of entertainment. How they function in society is a mystery, Oh wait! No, I know! They whine, jump up and down and carry on like spoiled brats till they change the rules solely to benefit them.

What Clintoon did to the Armed Services was a crime. I once had the displeasure of meeting Anthony Weiner. I asked him pointblank about the then recent article in USA Today that not one division in the US Army had been rated C-1 or ready for war. His response (as I remember) was something to the effect of: "Oh the military always cooks the books and plays doom and gloom when they want more money." This isn't just a Clintonian problem folks, this is the party that gave us Ron Dellums and Pat Schroder. We need to expose the Dems as the enemy of the men and women in uniform they are. Need I remind you under who's watch we had tens of thousands of EMs living on food stamps?

[america-rules]

2002 pay, benefits package called the greatest in a generation (Bush Comes Through on Promise-Help Has Arrived)

[Braak]

And Dubya keeps another promise...any wonder he confounds the Libiots at every turn?

Let me help you libiots: It's called CHARACTER! Dubya has it to spare , Bubba didn't have enough to say no the the interns. And your side of the isle never will!