I heard this sound bite as I was driving to school this morning and I laughed out loud, it stuck me as typical of Clinton:
OK, now let's look at all the criticisms: Black Hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Usama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew Al Qaeda was a growing concern in October of '93.That has to be the worst defense ever! Because no one knew about bin Laden, our failure in Somalia wasn't your fault? Because we didn't know that bin Laden would be encouraged by our failure, that excuses your lack of engagement? What is he saying? If he knew that bin Laden was involved, he would have made sure we were successful? That we would have sent in more troops to engage the enemy? If we had, we would have been taking on al Qaeda. It is clear that if more troops had been sent in, we would have been able to take on and win this fight. Clinton's failure in this engagement lead to bin Laden's belief that he could take us on and win:
In December 1992, bin Laden found the battle he'd been waiting for. The United States was leading a UN-sanctioned rescue mission into Somalia. In the midst of a famine, the country's government had completely broken down, and warring tribes-largely Muslim--had cut off relief efforts by humanitarian groups. Somalians were starving to death in cities and villages, and the U. S., which had moved quickly to rescue oil-rich Kuwait, had come under mounting criticism for doing nothing.Whether Clinton or anyone else knew about bin Laden doesn't matter. What matters is that Clinton's failure as Commander in Chief lead to a stronger and a more powerful enemy, who wasn't afraid to take us on. He can try to say that he didn't know, but shame on him for not knowing who are enemy was. And then, when learning that he was our enemy, did nothing and we all know, (and have heard in his own voice) that he could have ordered him killed or captured and chose not to do so.
When the Marines landed in the last days of 1992, bin Laden sent in his own soldiers, armed with AK-47's and rocket launchers. Soon, using the techniques they had perfected against the Russians, they were shooting down American helicopters. The gruesome pictures of the body of a young army ranger being dragged naked through the streets by cheering crowds flashed around the world. The yearlong American rescue mission for starving Somalians went from humanitarian effort to quagmire in just three weeks. Another superpower humiliated. Another bin Laden victory.
"After leaving Afghanistan, the Muslim fighters headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking that the Americans were like the Russians," bin Laden said. "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat. And America forgot all the hoopla and media propaganda ... about being the world leader and the leader of the New World Order, and after a few blows they forgot about this title and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat."
[...]
During the two days I had waited at the camp for bin Laden, some of his fighters sat on the floor of our hut and told war stories. One soldier, with a big grin, told of slitting the throats of three American soldiers in Somalia.
When I asked bin Laden about this, he said, "When this took place, I was in the Sudan, but this great defeat pleased me very much, the way it pleases all Muslims."
The Somalia operation, in some ways, made bin Laden. During the Afghan war, the CIA had been very aware of him (although the agency now insists it never "controlled" him), but in Somalia, bin Laden had taken a swing at the biggest kid in the school yard and given him a black eye. The next fight, a few weeks later, would begin with a sucker punch.
And I know this one hurts Clinton, you could tell it was a festering wound the way that he responded. I don't think his response was planned, I think he's bitter because he really doesn't think this is a fair charge. But this is his failure and he will have to live with the consequences of his inaction.
Here are more articles refuting what Clinton said during the Wallace interview. Byron York and The American Thinker.
Updated to add: I can't believe I missed this exchange between Clinton and Wallace:
The quote in my original post from bin Laden is from John Miller's interview in 1998! Clinton has known since 1998 that bin Laden was involved in Somalia and thought we would respond and didn't. He viewed us as a paper tiger than. Clinton knew and did nothing. They laughed about killing our men and he did nothing.CLINTON: But it would've shown the weakness if we'd left right away, but he wasn't involved in that. That's just a bunch of bull. That was about Mohammed Adid, a Muslim warlord, murdering 22 Pakistani Muslim troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission. We had no mission, none, to establish a certain kind of Somali government or to keep anybody out.
He was not a religious fanatic ...
WALLACE: But, Mr. President ...
CLINTON: ... there was no Al Qaeda ..
And when your men are killed, it no longer is a humanitarian mission, it becomes a war. What a terrible Commander in Chief. I think this is terrible for Hillary, it only reminds us how awful these people are at military engagement.
Tags:
