MER - WASHINGTON - 8 March:
Bill Clinton was Governor
of Arkansas back in January 1991. He knew he was going to enter the primaries
for President;and he was already trying to have things both ways.
Remember the scene:
The Senate of the
United States was quite divided. After months of build-up and propaganda,
with huge numbers of American and a few other troops ready to attack, Bush
was uncertain how the Senate vote would go.
The Israelis of course,
manipulating their powerful Capital Hill lobby, were doing all they could
to beat the war drums -- but it was not quite enough.
The Kuwaitis were so nervous
they hired a major public relations firm and manufactured very emotional
(and later we learned very false) testimony before the Senators and in
the media. The main witness -- claiming to have witnessed terrible
atrocities and then escaped Kuwait -- later turned out not even to have
been there at the time and to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador!
Asked after the narrow
Senate vote of 52 to 47 to "approve" the war, Bill Clinton said he agreed
with those "against", but (knowing how the vote had turned out) he might
have voted "for" it. In his own words:
Governor Bill Clinton - Jan 1991
And now Bill and his Vietnam-era
protesting buddies control, and in turn are controlled by, the vast American
military-industrial complex now preparing to further devastate one of the
most important Arab
countries.
And no wonder in today's Washington
the very term "politician" is more akin to huckster and used car salesman,
than it is to statesman and public servant.