Bush admits that Bill Clinton was right and Republicans were dead wrong. - NY Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/opinion/13LEWI.html

In one traumatic month President Bush's view of America and the world has been transformed. One sentence at his press conference Thursday made that stunningly clear.

"We . . . should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area," Mr. Bush said, "that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved."

With that, he swept away all his past scorn at U.S. involvement in what he called "nation building." And it is not the only Bush shibboleth that has fallen.

Demonizing China as a potential enemy has disappeared with the need to enlist Beijing in the alliance against terrorism. So has demonizing Washington, D.C.; attacks on the role of the federal government have given way to calls for more federal responsibility.

Mr. Bush had pulled this country back from engagement in the effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that President Clinton was too involved. Now he has come out for a Palestinian state, and he is clearly ready for major diplomatic moves when the time is right.

More generally, Mr. Bush has turned away from the unilateralism that marked his foreign policy from Jan. 20 to Sept. 11. In everything he does in the antiterrorist campaign he has an eye out for the views and sensibilities of others — our European allies, Pakistan, the Arab world. The idea of the global alliance against terrorism is at the center of his policy.

Political leaders do not usually find it easy to change their positions. I think Mr. Bush deserves great credit for abandoning ideological postures when they did not meet the test of reality. He has learned, and it shows.

-- (@ .), October 13, 2001

Answers

When I saw him say that, I also thought it was a slap at his own father and HIS policies. It appears he is refusing to be the puppet that others tried to make him when they placed him into office.

I'm beginning to see the baby boomer in him, a person who defied the war mongering of his parents. He didn't mindlessly jump in and blow the country to hell, he got the facts, realized the problem, and is going after the guilty, while preventing a new generation of terrorists by NOT making the same conditions that caused this one.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), October 13, 2001.


Who are you and what have you done to Cherri?

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), October 13, 2001.

LOL! Deedah...

Rollin' on the floor...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), October 13, 2001.


""We . . . should learn a lesson from the previous engagement in the Afghan area," Mr. Bush said

I hardly thinks this represents a sudden acquisition of integrity by Dubya, but rather just another example of his neverending lack of it. It was obviously intended to criticize action taken by the Clinton administration in an attempt to make his approach seem superior. When you compare the actual results though, this is not so obvious. Clinton killed 24 members of Al Qaeda with one swift attack. Dubya's military campaign has been going on for a month and will probably continue for years, costing taxpayers $$$billions for years to come. What has it accomplished, zilch.

"that we should not just simply leave after a military objective has been achieved."

Of course not, not when you've got an agenda to take over the oil resources in the region. As if the Middle East countries are not already pissed off enough at our presence in their region, Dubya now wants to take over an entire country and move in for good. This isn't going to eliminate terrorists, it's going to breed more of them.

This master of deception may be fooling a lot of the people, but he ain't fooling me, not for a minute.

-- Hah! (who's@he.kidding?), October 13, 2001.


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