I don't want to bash
I don't want to bash on Clinton, but it's becoming clear now that his foreign policy was led by one principle: don't let any Americans get killed.
Sometimes Mohammed's escapes have been abetted by the caution of his pursuers. In one instance, in 1996, U.S. intelligence had determined that Mohammed was in Doha, Qatar. Some American officials wanted to organize what they call a "snatch and grab," essentially a commando raid, to seize him."Good intel had placed him in Qatar. This was, 'Oh my God! This bastard is in Doha -- let's get him," said one person involved in the investigation.
This plan was defeated when high-level managers complained during a White House meeting that it was too risky and might result in American deaths, according to two people involved in the decision. They said this failure to act decisively characterized the U.S. government's lack of a serious approach to terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks.
They turned down Osama at least once, too. Call me crazy, but it seems the net effect of that policy was not the deaths of fewer Americans -- but the deaths of far more American civilians.
Isn't that the point of the military? To have them be on the front lines, so the rest of us don't have to be? Our military is the best in the world -- and they all enlisted of their own free will. Of the military men I know, they take pride in the possibility of saving lives, even if it means that they put themselves at risk. That's the kind of people they are. It's an insult that our foreign policy was for so long guided by a principle that literally kept them from doing their job.
Posted by Matt at March 1, 2003 5:46 PM
