Breaking Tradition

Powerline has a post on former President Clinton's remarks on Meet the Press (or Press the Meat as I call it). I've read and heard many comments about "His Emminence's" interview. Such things as Tim Russert and George Stephonopoulous feeding him talking points. Nobody fisks it better than Hinderacker though. Here is a taste:

AFP reports:

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."

This attack was false in every respect. The invasion of Iraq had the support of dozens of nations. The UN's inspections could never be "completed," but the UN itself had reported that large quantities of WMDs remained unaccounted for. On the other hand, Clinton's suggestion that there was "no real urgency" about the situation in Iraq was probably sincere, as it typified Clinton's approach to terrorism: he perceived no urgency after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, or after al Qaeda's attempt to simultaneously destroy a dozen American airplanes over the Pacific in 1995; or after the attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998; or after Saddam's attempt to assassinate former President Bush; or after Saddam repeatedly tried to shoot down American aircraft; or after the Cole bombing in 2000; or after the Taliban took over Afghanistan and converted it into a training ground for anti-American mass murderers; or after any number of other provocations. So, naturally, Clinton saw no urgency with respect to dealing with Saddam's regime. Of course, had Saddam facilitated a post-9/11 attack on the U.S. using chemical or biological weapons, you can imagine how harshly Clinton would have criticized Bush for his lack of foresight.

Bravo!