From the WSJ Opinion Archives
The
Republican Dogs Ate My Antiterror Policy
Remember when Bill Clinton had a proud presidential legacy? You know--he was
the guy who balanced the budget, reformed welfare and single-handedly produced
the biggest economic boom in history. We never really believed this, but it
was once possible for Clinton partisans at least to argue it with a straight
face. After Sept. 11, though, Clinton's foreign-policy failures loom much larger
than his domestic policy successes, such as they are.
But Clinton's presidential aides, speaking through Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, are putting forth an excuse for Clinton's failure to fight terror more aggressively. He was "distracted," you see. Cohen writes:
It's not as if the administration did nothing at all. On Aug. 20, 1998, Clinton authorized a missile attack on an installation in Afghanistan where bin Laden was supposed to be. Bin Laden narrowly escaped--a matter of hours, we are told. After that, however, nothing much was done. U.S. intelligence continued to track bin Laden for the purpose of killing him--a presidential directive to that effect had already been signed--but it seems fair to say that the Clinton administration at the highest level was not singularly focused on this aim. On the other hand, bin Laden's focus, as we now know, was both singular and effective. . . .
But when it comes to bin Laden, a little context is in order. The missile attack took place in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton had just testified to the grand jury. Before that, a sample of blood had been taken from him to prove that it was he who had stained Lewinsky's dress. He was facing impeachment and, by way of understatement, his marriage was under stress.
You may say that this was all his own fault. To a degree, true enough. But it is also true that he was sustaining an unprecedented attack on his presidency, an effort to oust him for reasons that had nothing to do with abuse of power. What's more, the entire impeachment process had been propelled by an effort to "get" Clinton--the "vast right-wing conspiracy" of Hillary Clinton's telling and accurate phrase. . . .
That long, arduous and contemptible effort to shame the president from office did real damage. It lowered the bar to impeachment and it weakened the country at a moment when, as we now know, it was in peril. No doubt Clinton's legacy suffered, and no number of conference calls can change that. But if history faults him for not focusing more on bin Laden, then it will also take into account the reasons.
Cohen says "Clinton aides" and "visitors" tell him that at the time the president was "consumed with his own plight" and "understandably so." So there you have it: Clinton's failure to fight terrorism was the Republicans' fault.
There are a few problems with this analysis. First, if Clinton was so distracted, how is it that he was able to achieve all those wonderful domestic-policy triumphs?
Second, Clinton's few military moves against terrorism came at times when the pressure from Monicagate was at its greatest. The Aug. 20, 1998, strike to which Cohen refers came but three days after Clinton lied under oath to a grand jury in Ken Starr's investigation. Clinton also bombed Iraq on Dec. 16, 1998--just as the House was getting set to debate impeachment. Cynics said Clinton was using the military in an effort to divert attention from his own legal problems. Whether or not this is true, it does seem reasonable to conclude that the legal pressure seems to have focused Clinton's attention on the danger from America's enemies--quite the opposite of Cohen's theory.
Finally, it should count for something that Clinton was guilty. Perhaps it is Cohen's view that lying under oath and obstructing justice are not serious crimes (though he doesn't actually make this argument). It seems disingenuous, to say the least, for Cohen to claim that using the office of the presidency to procure women and shield him from the consequences of perjury "had nothing to do with the abuse of power."
One may think Starr and congressional Republicans were overzealous in pursuing the case against Clinton. But if Clinton's "plight" really rendered him unable to do his job, he could have resigned. Is this an unreasonable thing to expect? No more so, it seems to us, than expecting prosecutors and congressmen to ignore evidence of a genuine crime in the name of not distracting the president.
What
a Heel
The Times of London reports that Richard Reid, who allegedly tried to blow up
a plane with a bomb in his shoe, "is a small-time British criminal who
converted to Islam behind bars." Reid joined the Brixton Mosque in South
London, where, another
Times report notes, Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker," and
a Yemen terror suspect also worshipped. Ironically, the Times reports that Britain's
most fanatical Muslims sneer at Brixton:
A spokesman for Abu Hamza, imam of the extremist Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, confirmed yesterday that the Brixton Mosque was held in contempt by radicals.
Brixton Mosque was "in cloud-cuckoo-land", he said. "Their Islam is a half-baked religion. It is chi-chi Islam. We have many, many differences with them. It is very funny to think (the shoe bomber) might come from their mosque. They would be the last to condone such a thing. They are far away from all the realities of the world."
The leader of Brixton Mosque "said that Mr Reid was incapable of acting alone and was probably on a test mission for a new terrorist technique," the Times reports.
News
We Wish Were True
The Pakistan Observer reports from Peshawar that Osama bin Laden "had a
peaceful natural death in mid-December," according to "a Taliban leader
who attended [the] funeral":
Late Osama bin Ladin, according to the source, was suffering from some serious lungs complication and succumbed to the disease for lack of proper treatment. The source claimed that OBL was laid to rest honourably in his last abode and his grave was levelled even as per his Wahabi belief.
The source supposedly told the Observer that bin Laden had no regrets. "Osama was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of 'pagans' against Islam." Asked where the terror mastermind was buried, the source told the paper: "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."
The
Pakistani Connection
The Indian Express reports the Northern Alliance has found evidence that Laskhar-e-Taiba,
the Pakistani terror group blamed for the Dec. 13 attack on the Indian Parliament,
trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan. "We have come across many documents
which prove that Laskhar-e-Toiba men were here with the Arabs and Pakistanis,"
an alliance commander tells the paper. "They used to come from Pakistan,
stay here for two-three months and fan out after the training,"
Fresno
Fanatics
The FBI is investigating a Muslim enclave near Fresno, Calif., for possible
terrorist ties, the San Jose Mercury News reports:
Officials confirmed last week that the FBI is investigating connections between the community, called Baladullah, and an organization known as Jamaat Al-Fuqra, which the U.S. State Department has listed as a terrorist group operating in Pakistan and North America. . . .
Those investigations, all pursued separately, came across evidence, for example, that the man accused of killing a Fresno sheriff's deputy Aug. 21 was familiar with the work of Al-Fuqra's founder, and that the community had connections to other organizations associated with Al-Fuqra.
On Wednesday we noted an Al-Fuqra-related investigation in Virginia. The Mercury News reports that followers of Sheik Mubarik Ali Jilani, who the State Department says founded Al-Fuqra, "deny that Al-Fuqra exists. They say 'Zionists' and other outsiders have taken a common Arabic phrase, which refers to poverty, and conjured up a terrorist organization."
Next
She'll Say She's Napoleon
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Stephanie Salter thinks she's the son of God.
Seriously. Weblogger James
Lileks notes that on Sunday Salter penned an open letter to President Bush
"from" Jesus--written in the first person! "May the peace of our Lord (and me)
be upon you in this celebration season of my birth," it begins:
Since Sept. 11, dear brother, I have noticed that you have turned away from me. I do not hear you ask yourself or anyone else the question you once asked all the time: "What would Jesus do?"
Remember, George? It was so familiar, it became an abbreviation: W.W.J.D.? When you ran for president, you told the world I was your favorite philosopher.
I know why you turned away. To face me, and all that I demand of those who follow me, requires tenacious courage and, in politics, a kind of leadership that is rare.
All we can say is, we hope the Chronicle's health plan includes generous coverage for psychiatric care.
Stupidity
Watch
The Student
Senate of the University of Washington ("the official student opinion
making body of the students here at the University of Washington") has
rejected a resolution supporting America in the war against terrorists. Not
only Muslim students but also blacks and Hispanics opposed the measure, reports
the Associated Press, which quotes a senate board member, Alex Narvaez, as saying:
"Our purpose for existing is to make things more equal and get rid of institutional
racism--and, in this war, a certain ethnic group was singled out. There are
a lot of innocent people in Afghanistan."
Blacks
for Bush
The New York Times (link requires registration) reports that three out of four
blacks "approved of Mr. Bush's performance" since Sept. 11, according
to a Times/CBS News poll. Although it's unlikely this will translate into Republican
votes, it is a timely reminder that campus radicals like those at the U of Washington
don't actually speak on behalf of America's racial and ethnic minorities.
Not
Just Horsing Around
"The world's only unmechanised mounted cavalry regiment, the 61st Cavalry
of the Indian Army, has been mobilised in the war preparations being made by
India along the Pakistan border," reports Tehelka.com:
The 61st Cavalry is known for its outstanding record in equestrian events and has a proud polo-playing tradition. The regiment has produced some of the country's most outstanding and inspired polo players. This mounted cavalry, permanently stationed in its regimental centre in Jaipur, has no place in modern offensive warfare, but has been ingeniously retained to patrol the Forward Management Areas of a war theatre. The joke going around Jaipur nowadays is that the officers of 61st Cavalry, who perhaps lead the most glamorous life in the Indian army, have been running helter-skelter to get new camouflage uniforms.
Dershowitless
Virginia Postrel
notes this hilarious exchange in the New York Times book review's letters section
(fourth letter, link requires registration):
If the Book Review had selected a young lawyer rather than a middle-aged former editor of a French magazine to review "Letters to a Young Lawyer" (Dec. 9), perhaps he might have shared the enthusiasm many young lawyers have been expressing about my book. Alexander Star reviews my career, of which he apparently disapproves, rather than my book, which was not written for him.
Let me just add a word of advice for young lawyers: decide for yourselves whether my book is helpful.
Alan Dershowitz
Cambridge, Mass.Alexander Star replies:
My discussion of "Letters to a Young Lawyer" focused almost entirely on Alan Dershowitz's short book and not his long career. As for my own career, I would like to assure Dershowitz that the magazine I used to edit, Lingua Franca, was written in English (and counted many law professors and lawyers among its loyal readers).
Postrel notes that the phrase lingua franca is Latin, not French (though in fairness to Dershowitz, French is a Romance language).
Homelessness Rediscovery Watch
"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."--Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000
"Local Homeless Numbers 'Going to Be Ugly': Service cuts, recession promise to strain system"--headline and subheadline, Cincinnati Business Courier, Dec. 14, 2001
"Houston Dodges Freeze, but Homeless Still Suffering"--headline, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 26, 2001
Respecting
'Others'
Black students in Ithaca, N.Y., public schools will see their grades suffer
if they disrespect whites. Or so it would seem from this report in the Cornell
Review:
The Ithaca City School District has recently mandated that elementary school students in the first and second grades receive an actual grade on how well they "respect others of varying cultures, genders, experiences, and abilities." Now, six-year-old Johnny can get an extra quarter from mommy and daddy just by being "tolerant."
You
Don't Say
An Associated Press survey of 75 AP subscribers finds that the top news story
of 2001 was the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Shocking, huh? What we're wondering,
though, is why they don't do a survey of the bottom news stories--the
ones with the greatest worldwide insignificance. That might actually
be interesting, or at least amusing.
Our nominee for 2001's bottom story appeared in the Jan. 20 issue of the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, under the headline "Appendix Out . . . Worries Over." Here's the lead paragraph:
It's not one for the record books, but the removal of 2-year-old Samantha Jacquemart's appendix has come at an unusually young age, according to an Altru doctor.
The surgeon, Mark Siegel, told the paper that an appendectomy for a two-year-old is "unusual, but not rare." If Samantha's appendix had burst, there was a 1 in 20 chance that she would have died. It didn't burst, though, depriving the story of even the smallest element of danger.
(Thanks to T.A. Young, Damian Bennett, Raghu Desikan, C.E. Dobkin, Wim de Vriend, Amol Cricketwallah, Joe Littrell, Kenneth McKenna, W. Stuart Dornette, Kevin Whited and Steven Getman. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Farrukh Dhondy: How multiculturalism nurtured an Islamic fifth column (link requires registration)
- Tom Bray: The case for optimism after Sept. 11.
- Pete du Pont: 2001 in review--cheers to cops and firemen, jeers to Philly's mayor.
