http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050918/wl_afp/usweatheriraqeconomy_050918200308

Quote :

"Clinton launches withering attack on Bush on Iraq, Katrina, budget WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit. Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction." The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" programme. Clinton said there had been a "heroic but so far unsuccessful" effort to put together an constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq. The US strategy of trying to develop the Iraqi military and police so that they can cope without US support "I think is the best strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that," said Clinton. On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29. People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind. "If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out," Clinton. He agreed that some responsibility for this lay with the local and state authorities, but pointed the finger, without naming him, at the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA boss Michael Brown quit in response to criticism of his handling of the Katrina disaster. He was viewed as a political appointee with no experience of disaster management or dealing with government officials. "When James Lee Witt ran FEMA, because he had been both a local official and a federal official, he was always there early, and we always thought about that," Clinton said, referring to FEMA's head during his 1993-2001 presidency. "But both of us came out of environments with a disproportionate number of poor people." On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme and tax cuts that benefitted just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included. "What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," he said. "We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else." Clinton added: "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense.""

9/18/2005 8:08:07 PM

we're the worlds bitch.

9/18/2005 8:10:00 PM

i hope this doesn't drive a wedge between clinton and bush sr.

they make such a cute couple

9/18/2005 8:22:24 PM

i don't think there is anyone with a brain who didnt already know this

9/18/2005 8:44:35 PM

But we HAVE had a deficit before. Where the money to run things come from at that time? As I understood it, the debt was to the American people in the form of treasury bonds, and so forth. Do we really owe other countries money? We cancel their debts all the time. Look at Germany. They never repaid the world for WWI or WWII. Oh well.

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 8:49 PM. Reason : ]

9/18/2005 8:49:10 PM

yeah

lets just tell china to suck it

9/18/2005 8:52:03 PM

Typical Clinton. Typical liar. Typical hypocrite.

Bill Clinton - September 18, 2005:

“But the administration, then, decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were any weapons of mass destruction there.”

Bill Clinton – February 4, 1998:

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."

Bill Clinton – February 17, 1998:

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."

Stated Mission of Operation Desert Fox - December 1998:

"To strike military and security targets in Iraq that contribute to Iraq's ability to produce, store, maintain and deliver weapons of mass destruction."

9/18/2005 8:56:02 PM

i dunno if you can compare tactical strikes designed to take out production facilities to toppling the fucking government and building a nation in your own fucking image as if you were the God of modern civilization

9/18/2005 9:00:00 PM

Clinton avoided the problem entirely by talking a big game while doing dick to actually rectify the situation. The same goes with Al Qaeda and the economy.

9/18/2005 9:02:47 PM

Quote :

"Bill Clinton – February 4, 1998: "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.""

AHAHAH

maybe you should read your own post before you pwnt yourself.

clinton clearly accomplished this. and the world is incredibly safer. too bad someone fucked up the intel on this though a few years later.

9/18/2005 9:30:32 PM

He accomplished that when? Which embassy or factory was destroyed to accomplish that feat?

9/18/2005 9:31:59 PM

all of them. the sanctions worked. do you deny the WMD were gone?

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 9:33 PM. Reason : 3]

9/18/2005 9:33:21 PM

Clinton thought Saddam had WMD. The food for oil program was a joke.

9/18/2005 9:34:42 PM

He never diminished their capacity to create WMD. Ever heard of the Balfour report?

9/18/2005 9:35:40 PM

Ever heard of the Colbert Report?

9/18/2005 9:37:15 PM

that article had more typos and outright mistakes than I can count

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 9:44 PM. Reason : they replaced Clinton's name with Bush's once, for christ's sake]

9/18/2005 9:44:04 PM

nothing clinton said was factually incorrect

9/18/2005 9:48:49 PM

George W. Bush, 6/5/99

“I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”

George W. Bush, 6/24/05:

“It doesn’t make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you’re — you’re conceding too much to the enemy.”

this game sucks

9/18/2005 10:04:13 PM

BUSH 99

Quote :

"i would never nation build. nation building is for elitists."

BUSH 2005

Quote :

"i unbuild and build nations for breakfast"

9/18/2005 10:18:49 PM

You know, WolfPack4Life, those quotes you posted would be pretty damning if Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction.

ALAS!

9/18/2005 10:19:21 PM

if youre gonna quote the opposition, maybe it shouldnt include references to the biggest intellegence humiliation in history

9/18/2005 10:22:03 PM

Wow, the tractor boy jist done outsmart hiself, dinnni?

9/18/2005 10:27:24 PM

Quote :

"CDeezntz: this game sucks"

Agreed. Makes you wonder why people on either side continue to play it...

9/18/2005 10:28:16 PM

Why don't you ask yourself?

9/18/2005 10:33:55 PM

^
Was there a question somewhere?

9/18/2005 10:35:22 PM

Nah, just love to see a politician wannabe being disgusted with politicians.

9/18/2005 10:41:57 PM

Somebody plz to address my point and correct me if I am wrong. To whom is the debt actually owed?

9/18/2005 10:55:55 PM

Quote :

"Clinton avoided the problem entirely by talking a big game while doing dick to actually rectify the situation. The same goes with Al Qaeda and the economy."

You know nothing. Clinton did more to combat and hunt down terrorists than Bush has done. When Clinton was hot on the trail of Bin Laden, the Republican partisans screamed, "No war for Monica".

9/18/2005 11:08:45 PM

Once again, absolute foolishness. Clinton was an embarassment to the United States. He did nothing to fight terrorists. Who was the one that actually sent in troops to search for and destroy terror? who finally took out saddam and his corrupt regime? I dont think it was your hero here.

9/18/2005 11:13:33 PM

the big girl strikes again!

9/18/2005 11:15:36 PM

Quote :

"The Coz: Somebody plz to address my point and correct me if I am wrong. To whom is the debt actually owed?"

Investors mostly. About 25% is owed to foreign entities (people + governments).

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/

http://www.fms.treas.gov/bulletin/index.html

9/18/2005 11:17:23 PM

ha remember when clinton blew up the toothpaste factory in afganistan.

he got so much shit for that.

hilllllllllarious

9/18/2005 11:17:47 PM

Ok, I waited long enough. Please stop referring to me by that name. This is my old nickname from college. My last name begins with L, so I am "Tha Big L". It's uncalled for.

9/18/2005 11:19:18 PM

asian and other central banks do hold a lot of our debt and they would regardless of whether or not we were running a deficit.

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 11:20 PM. Reason : ]

9/18/2005 11:20:13 PM

Quote :

"He did nothing to fight terrorists."

yes unlike bush before 9 11

9/18/2005 11:27:07 PM

neither bush nor clinton did much of anything before 9/11 because before 9/11 the bastards were nothing more than a minor annoyance.

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 11:29 PM. Reason : ]

9/18/2005 11:29:21 PM

well i hope the government knew more than you did before 9/11

9/18/2005 11:30:53 PM

Clinton captured and punished terrorists. Bush has let bin Laden roam free for years.

Quote :

"# On 26 February 1993, a car loaded with 1,200 pounds of explosives blew up in a parking garage under the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring about a thousand others. The blast did not, as its planners intended, bring down the towers — that was finally accomplished by flying two hijacked airliners into the twin towers on the morning of 11 September 2001. Four followers of the Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman were captured, convicted of the World Trade Center bombing in March 1994, and sentenced to 240 years in prison each. The purported mastermind of the plot, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, was captured in 1995, convicted of the bombing in November 1997, and also sentenced to 240 years in prison. One additional suspect fled the U.S. and is believed to be living in Baghdad. # On 13 November 1995, a bomb was set off in a van parked in front of an American-run military training center in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. Saudi Arabian authorities arrested four Saudi nationals whom they claim confessed to the bombings, but U.S. officials were denied permission to see or question the suspects before they were convicted and beheaded in May 1996. # On 25 June 1996, a booby-trapped truck loaded with 5,000 pounds of explosives was exploded outside the Khobar Towers apartment complex which housed United States military personnel in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing nineteen Americans and wounding about three hundred others. Once again, the U.S. investigation was hampered by the refusal of Saudi officials to allow the FBI to question suspects. On 21 June 2001, just before the American statute of limitations would have expired, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted thirteen Saudis and an unidentified Lebanese chemist for the Khobar Towers bombing. The suspects remain in Saudi custody, beyond the reach of the American justice system. (Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S.) # On 7 August 1998, powerful car bombs exploded minutes apart outside the United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people and wounding about 5,000 others. Four participants with ties to Osama bin Laden were captured, convicted in U.S. federal court, and sentenced to life in prison without parole in October 2001. Fourteen other suspects indicted in the case remain at large, and three more are fighting extradition in London. # On 12 October 2000, two suicide bombers detonated an explosives-laden skiff next to the USS Cole while it was refueling in Aden, Yemen, blasting a hole in the ship that killed 17 sailors and injured 37 others. No suspects have yet been arrested or indicted. The investigation has been hampered by the refusal of Yemini officials to allow FBI agents access to Yemeni nationals and other suspects in custody in Yemen. (The USS Cole bombing occurred one month before the 2000 presidential election, so even under the best of circumstances it was unlikely that the investigation could have been completed before the end of President Clinton's term of office three months later.)"

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/clinton.htm

Unfortunately, Republicans were more interested in the location of Bill's cock, than they were the location of terrorists.

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 11:36 PM. Reason : of]

9/18/2005 11:35:43 PM

Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno had stopping terrorism as the #1 goal.

Bush's Attorney General, John Ashcroft didn't even include it in his list of 7 priorites

[Edited on September 18, 2005 at 11:40 PM. Reason : .]

9/18/2005 11:40:33 PM

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/bush.powell.terrorism/

""I want justice," Bush said. "And there's an old poster out West… I recall, that said, 'Wanted, Dead or Alive.'""

9/19/2005 12:02:06 AM

yea burning down the Davidians in Waco was really taking care of those damned dirty terrorists

so was getting that damn Gonzales kid the hell out of here

9/19/2005 12:04:47 AM

^never saw Clinton or his butt buddies in the UN address that like that did you?

9/19/2005 12:05:42 AM

Bill Clinton is 100 times the man Bush is, and 1,000 times the president.

9/19/2005 12:11:26 AM

clinton criticize bush? nooooooooooooooooooooooo



[Edited on September 19, 2005 at 12:12 AM. Reason : forgot to put the roll eyes smiley]

9/19/2005 12:12:05 AM

The truth hurts.

9/19/2005 12:17:07 AM

Quote :

""There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.""

9/19/2005 12:30:00 AM

hey, i often confuse cliche phrases with who lyrics too

9/19/2005 12:32:01 AM

Quote :

"This is my old nickname from college. "

WELL HERES A NEW ONE PUMPKIN

9/19/2005 12:32:33 AM

Quote :

""Tax cuts are always popular," Clinton said. "But about half of these tax cuts since 2001 have gone to people in my income group, the top 1 percent. I've gotten four tax cuts. "Now, what Americans need to understand is that that means every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," Clinton added. "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense. I think it's wrong.""

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1136801&page=1

I should listen to Rush Limburger tomorrow, and listen to his head explode on the air.

9/19/2005 12:58:03 AM

i guess they would argue its easier to get money to the poor becuase it will end up trickling down to them.

i suppose

9/19/2005 3:35:08 AM