Dwight Watt Internet Article #24


#24 – Bill looks more and more like John 4/21/1999

#24- Bill looks more and more like John

From the time Bill Clinton ran for president we have heard that he wanted to emulate John Kennedy as president. Well it looks like he is getting his wish a second time. We know he already has gotten his wish in terms of sex scandals. Now he is leading us off into a war where we may well belong, but refusing to fully commit to it.

John Kennedy made the first partial commitments to the Vietnam war and would only put advisors there. They were severely limited, and when Johnson continued the policy he kept adding troops, but never was the intention to win, but just a holding action. In addition, we went off fighting a war under Kennedy and Johnson and it was never declared, but yet the Constitution gives that power only to Congress. Where was Congress.

Now Clinton sends us off to Kosovo to prevent the people from being wiped out there and says we will only fight an air war and send in no troops until Milosevic signs a peace treaty. Clinton says he is fighting this war based on our successes in the Gulf War. Obviously Clinton paid absolutely no attention to the way bush ran the Gulf War. First off Bush had a specific objective and that was to free Kuwait who had lost their independence to Iraq. Second before the fighting began Bush got Congressional authorization. Third he bombed Iraq hard, but was just the start. He then had the troops read to go and send them into Kuwait to free it. The surprise was when the IRA up and surrendered all the way to the Iraqi border.

Now Clinton goes off to fight in Kosovo. First he has never stated a specific objective other than Milosevic to sign a peace treaty. Second, he is fighting for a territory of Yugoslavia to become independent. Kosovo has not been an independent nation. (What would Clinton have to say if China started bombing Washington demanding we give independence to Puerto Rico?) Third his war strategy is off. Bush had the ground troops read and had plneed to use them from the beginning. Fourth the massacres have only gotten worse since we started bombing. Clinton intends to only fight this from the air. Sort of like a video game of being commander in chief.

It is time for Clinton to come clean. Explain why we are there. Commit either fully to fight this war and get Congressional approval, or remember what the protestors said in the sixties and bring the troops and planes home. As it is going now it will be interesting to see if Clinton heads out to Wal-Mart to buy some poster boards and marker pens to make protest signs to carry in front of the White House. After all his strategy is what the war protestors were protesting in the 60s.

As far as the democrats who keep griping that the republicans should unite behind Clinton and give no criticism on this war effort because that is the traditional American way, let me remind them of the real American tradition concerning opposition to wars in politics. In 1864 McClellan ran against Lincoln on the grounds to end the war and let the Confederacy exist. He almost beat Lincoln. In 1972 McGovern, a Democrat in the senate ran against Nixon to just stop the Vietnam war. In 1991 in the Gulf War Sam Nunn, a well-respected Democrat Senator made it very clear that he opposed Bush and the war. So it is the job of the Republicans who believe that Clinton is conducting this war wrong to voice their position. And lastly remember that it was a young Clinton who stood up against his president on war matters in the 60s. You can claim he is more mature now, but I will point out that when he took those positions then he was a legal adult and of voting and drinking age.

Dwight

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