In the midst of a post about what's likely to be next on the Bush Administration's international agenda, SDB says this regarding President Clinton's responses, or lack thereof, to the various terrorist incidents that happened on his watch:
About the only effect on him is a loss of prestige, given how many people like me think that 9/11 could have been prevented if Clinton had reacted the way Bush did, and cleaned out the wasp nest in Afghanistan in 1993, or 1998, or 2000.
That's a fairly common meme these days: if only Clinton had done what he was supposed to do, maybe the disaster of 9-11-01 wouldn't have happened. This falls into the "Hindsight is 20/20" kind of thing, not unlike saying, "Gee, if France and Britain hadn't been so keen on punishing the bejesus out of Germany in 1919, maybe six million Jews wouldn't have died." And of course, there is little reason to suppose that President Bush the Elder, had he been elected to a second term, would have done anything other than what Clinton did; ditto a hypothetical President Dole. And the fact is, as much as some like to scoff at the "Shoot some cruise missiles at the guy" approach, that approach did come very close to nailing Bin Laden -- which, incidentally, is something that the Amazingly Decisive President Bush the Younger still has yet to do.
Looking at the "Exterminator" metaphor SDB employs here, it seems to me that while Bush certainly did give the wasp's nest a good smack or two with a broom handle, he didn't do much to actually decrease the number of actual wasps. As far as I can see, Bush-as-Exterminator hasn't achieved the results we'd expect of this guy. More like, oh, this guy.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
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