I've had it with Bill Clinton

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.

. . . He completely missed the point during the roundtable. And he completely missed it during his interview with Clinton. The point is that contrary to Drudge's misleading headline ("Clinton Turns on Bush"), Clinton refuses to directly challenge the president on the disaster that the war in Iraq has become (see the video here at Crooks and Liars). Through all his equivocating answers, there wasn't a single mention of the president or of anyone else in the administration responsible for this war and how it's been prosecuted.

In fact, to hear Russert and Clinton talk about the war in Iraq, you'd think it was just as much an act of God as Hurricane Katrina. In his answer to Russert's question, "Do you think the war in Iraq has hurt the U.S. image in the world?" Clinton started by saying, "I think it's been a net negative," but quickly moved on to "On the other hand, Saddam is gone and 58 percent of those people voted. That's an even higher percentage of people than voted in America in 2004, when we were proud of our turnout and when nobody's life was at risk. So there's still a chance this will work. And if it does, there's still a chance it will be a net plus for the Middle East."

Leaving aside his few mitigating hemming and hawing words, what the former president is effectively saying is what Bush's apologists are saying -- in fact, what National Review's Byron York actually said on the show: "I think there is still the possibility for good things happening." Wow, pretty stirring, huh? It must be nice for the hundreds of thousands whose loved ones are over there risking their lives that some people think there's still a possibility for good things. . .