Letter: Clinton smartly avoided Iraq war

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Being unable to justify their war of convenience, the Republicans have placed Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in front of the cameras to blame Bill Clinton for the war in Iraq. His weak argument was that he heard a 1998 speech where Clinton warned "something must be done" about Saddam Hussein.

Notice that Clinton did not immediately declare a war, however. Why is that? Well, for one thing, he had nothing to prove to his daddy. He had no big oil companies that needed payback for getting him into office. He had no vice president pulling his strings.

No, Bill Clinton had a mind of his own (nice quality in a president, don't you think?). He decided that his administration was not going to waste hundreds of American lives and thousands of foreign lives and alienate our country from every other country on the planet simply without probable cause.

So if the Republicans want to blame Clinton for being a competent president, I guess they can.

RANDALL BUIE

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