Headline: Bill Clinton says U.S. must stay in Iraq
Snip...
Clinton, a Democrat who left office at the start of 2001, said he had personally never seen any intelligence linking Iraq to al-Qaida, and "no one I knew believed that was the case." But that doesn't mean President Bush, a Republican, lied or deliberately misled the country about the reasons for going to war, Clinton said. Bush probably believed the information he was relying on was right, Clinton said.
Me: Clinton knocked out all that talk about he believed it too.
Snip...
If they do, he said, "this enterprise could still work," and
"we could look at having a fairly substantial drawdown (of troops) next year." If the United States pulled out now, he said, "Sunni Iraq would become the very terrorist hotbed they were accused of being before."
Me: That's not Bush's plan. As for the rest, he is referring to the situation as it is now.
Clinton also reacted to recent reports that the Bush administration has stashed some terrorist suspects in secret prisons abroad. He said his administration honored "rendition" treaties that involved sending prisoners to other countries, but "as far as I know, we had no place we could send someone so they could be tortured there but not here."
"I don't approve of that," he said.
Me: Ding! We have a winner.
Clinton offered praise for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who last week secured an agreement from Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinians crossing in and out of the Gaza Strip. The prospects for peace in that region are the best in five years, he said.
"I hope she'll do more of it," he said of Rice's diplomatic efforts. "She's a smart, gifted woman, and I'd like to see her over there juicing it up more."
Me: "Praise?" Where? He could have said she's black. His comments say she isn't doing enough.
Discussion here and link to original article here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5421620&mesg_id=5421620