December 28, 2005
Press: Clinton Exposed...regarding Iraq, that is.
It's just too bad that we had to invade Iraq under a Republican president. Otherwise, the Commander in Chief would enjoy the support of the predominant media. But, would Clinton have gone into Iraq under similar circumstances as President Bush? Well, here's what some "main stream media" journalists had to say about that in this article and as reported below.
Appearing on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert this week, two broadcast veterans, Tom Brokaw of NBC and Ted Koppel, agreed that the press shouldn't be faulted too harshly for not questioning more deeply the claims of WMD in Iraq -- and declared that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he was still president after 9/11.RUSSERT: And (Ted Kennedy and Sen. Byrd) were 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.
I'm sure that there is some explaining or clarification due on this before these two "fine" reporters are ostracized by their fellow journalists. Of course, you would never know that Clinton would have gone into Iraq by the way he speaks now. It sure must be nice to sit on the sidelines making judgements on Iraq and appearing so wise after the fact.
Posted by Woody at December 28, 2005 10:20 AM | TrackBackVery nice.
I've thought recently that one man capable of injecting a little sanity and sernity into our domestic politics would be Bill Clinton, if he were to stand up and tell his erstwhile fans on the left to grow up and separate their rage at W from an honest assessment of the hideous dilemma Iraq presented, especially after 9-11.
The fact that he's not doing that - has in fact moved gradually to condeming the war in a more outright fashion - tells me he treasures his wife's returning him to power more than the state of the nation. So it pisses me off.
If you don't mind, I wrote a little thing on my blog that I think captures the disingenuousness of the left and the MSM on the war decision pretty well:
http://paulfrommpls.blogspot.com/2005/11/state-of-war.html
Discovered you guys over at Marc Cooper's blog. Generally, Marc Cooper is a beacon of hope.
Posted by Paul From Mpls at December 29, 2005 01:34 PM
By the way, check out the enraged, disingenuous, point-missing letters in today's E&P web site:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001771828
As I'm sure you do as well, I always wonder what anti-war people mean by "letting the inspectors complete their work," and what exact Nirvana we would have reached at that unreachable point.
Posted by Paul From Mpls at December 29, 2005 02:11 PM
Thanks for the input and links, Paul. The letters from the left in response to Brokaw's & Koppel's remarks are typical--if you're not working for the left, then you're the enemy and will be discredited. I'm sure that those two "journalists" will gain acceptance back into the club once they have "clarified" their statements and recanted. The left has re-invented the Spanish Inquisition to further their socialist goals.
Posted by Woody at December 29, 2005 03:04 PM
