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Just thought we all could use a reminder of what the President said in his justification for taking military action against Iraq:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From the Oval Office (The President) told the nation Wednesday evening why he ordered new military strikes against Iraq.

The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world.

"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," (The President) said.

Operation......, a strong, sustained series of attacks, will be carried out over several days by U.S. and British forces, (The President) said.

"Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces,"(The President) said.

"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors," said (The President).

(The President) also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors.

The Iraqi leader was given a final warning six weeks ago, (The President) said, when Baghdad promised to cooperate with U.N. inspectors at the last minute just as U.S. warplanes were headed its way.

"Along with Prime Minister (Tony) Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy or warning," (The President) said.

The president said the report handed in Tuesday by Richard Butler, head of the United Nations Special Commission in charge of finding and destroying Iraqi weapons, was stark and sobering.

Iraq failed to cooperate with the inspectors and placed new restrictions on them, (The President) said. He said Iraqi officials also destroyed records and moved everything, even the furniture, out of suspected sites before inspectors were allowed in.

"Instead of inspectors disarming Saddam, Saddam has disarmed the inspectors," (The President) said.

"In halting our airstrikes in November, I gave Saddam a chance -- not a license. If we turn our backs on his defiance, the credibility of U.S. power as a check against Saddam will be destroyed," the president explained.

(The President) said he made the decision to strike Wednesday with the unanimous agreement of his security advisors.

Timing was important, said the president, because without a strong inspection system in place, Iraq could rebuild its chemical, biological and nuclear programs in a matter of months, not years.

"If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections system and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will," said (The President). "He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction."

(The President) also called Hussein a threat to his people and to the security of the world.

"The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government -- a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people," (The President) said.

Such a change in Baghdad would take time and effort, (The President) said, adding that his administration would work with Iraqi opposition forces.

...

"But once more, the United States has proven that although we are never eager to use force, when we must act in America's vital interests, we will do so."

Now the President has taken a lot of heat from Senate and House Democrats, and liberals around the country in general. The media has also been particularly harsh with the President for making these statements in the lead up to taking military action in Iraq... oh wait... I'm sorry..... I just noticed the date of the CNN article I pulled all that from, is December 16, 1998, and these were statements made by former President Bill Clinton before he launched strikes against Iraq. This was also about a month and a half after Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, effectively making Iraq "regime change" the United States policy, which is probably why he mentions assisting in such a regime change in these comments (though as we know, he never followed through).

Obviously I did this deliberately and changed "Clinton" throughout the article to read "(The President)" for the effect of the surprise ending, and didn't actually think I was reading President Bush's comments in the lead up to the current war in Iraq. You could probably tell they weren't Bush's statements because in many respects they are much stronger statements than Bush even made, but in general the message is virtually identical. I did have to remove two small paragraphs that related to the Clinton impeachment situation, as that would have obviously ruined the whole illusion, but othe than that and using "(The President)" instead of Clinton, this is ripped directly from the CNN article.

So I'm just curious, where were all the "Bush lied, people died" folks then? Where were all the "mislead us to war" "the President lied" Senate Democrats screaming about Clinton warning about how Saddam's WMD programs, including nuclear could be rebuilt in "months, not years". Now this is a bit of overkill but we know that the Democrats spent over a decade making a stronger case for war than President Bush ever did on the same intelligence. This included people in the Senate Intelligence committees and continued up to the eve of the war that began in early 2003. Incase you've somehow been asleep, see here for some of these comments from all of your favorite "Bush lied" Democrats, making the same and stronger arguments as President Bush. See here for Kerry's personal list of these type of comments, including pre-2004 election flip-flops on them (when you get to the page, scroll down a ways to go back as far as 1990).

Cal Thomas, in a piece on Iraq's connections to Al Qaeda, provides us this other Kerry quote from October 9, 2002:

"It would be naive to the point of grave danger not to believe that, left to his own devices, Saddam Hussein will provoke, misjudge or stumble into a future, more dangerous confrontation with the civilized world. ... He has supported and harbored terrorist groups, particularly radical Palestinian groups such as Abu Nidal, and he has given money to families of suicide murderers in Israel . ... We should not go to war because these things are in his past, but we should be prepared to go to war because of what they tell us about the future."

More on Iraq and Al Qaeda's connections here, and this doesn't include anything from the hundreds of thousands of documents that have been found in Iraq and not translated. We can only speculate as to what is found in those documents.

But back to the point. I just recently happened upon this 1998 CNN article detailing these Clinton's comments before striking Iraq and I was just a little irritated that I'd never seen this anywhere. I'd never heard interviewers say to the bloviating Democrats and Democratic operatives "but look what Clinton said!" Hannity isthe only one I've seen play gotcha with similar things to this a number of times, and it's always great to see a dumbfounded liberal look like they want to jump out the window. Most know the game now and are prepared not to slam the comments, knowing that Hannity will reveal they were made by leading Democrats.

Anyway, I think you get the picture, but in closing I think we should also note that not only did Clinton make the same (and arguably a stronger) case for military action and regime change (the law he signed anyway) in Iraq, but we had all the more reason when President Bush did the same thing because we had been attacked on 9/11/2001. Did all the liberals come out screaming "President Clinton, you're attacking a country that never attacked us" back when he launched his strikes on Iraq during peace time?

And one last little known story I happened to find recently... Despite Russia's opposition to the Iraq war, after 9/11, Russian President Putin warned Washington that Russian intelligence had learned that Saddam was planning terrorist attacks on the United States! I'm sure you probably didn't hear much about this, but it's not a joke, check it out via CNN here (June 18, 2004).

(partial excerpt)

Russian intelligence services warned Washington several times that Saddam Hussein's regime planned terrorist attacks against the United States, President Vladimir Putin has said.

The warnings were provided after September 11, 2001 and before the start of the Iraqi war, Putin said Friday.

The planned attacks were targeted both inside and outside the United States, said Putin, who made the remarks during a visit to Kazakhstan.

"I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received ... information that official organs of Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations," Putin said.

He said the information was given to U.S. intelligence officers and that U.S. President George W. Bush expressed his gratitude to a top Russian intelligence official.

read more...

I still think there is something to the reports of Russian military aiding in the transport of Saddam's WMDs to Syria in the days before the war, so I'm not sure how this intelligence sharing fits with that, other than the fact that there is a lot of corruption in the Russian military, and perhaps those aiding Saddam were involved in activities not sanctioned by the government. But that is all a whole different issue.

So anyway, next time someone wants to forget what Clinton said, you'll be able to remind them, and provide them with some other information they're probably not familiar with. I know I've shared a lot of similar information with uninformed liberals in recent months, and will continue to do so.

Open Trackbacks/Linkfests:
Right Wing Nation, TMH's Bacon Bits, The LIberal Wrong Wing, Stuck on Stupid, Adam's Blog, Wizbang, The Bullwinkle Blog, Don Surber, Point Five, Church and State, Stop the ACLU

UPDATE - 3/7/06 2:25 AM CT
Expose the Left has video of hecklers at a Clinton speaking event calling him a "war criminal". I'd be interested to find out specifically what they're complaining about. I'm also curious what Bill thinks about this behavior that conservative speakers experience regularly, only our people get pies and such thrown at them too. Anyway, I found it interesting that this comes just a couple days after I posted this flashback post.

Now obviously I'm not taking credit for setting liberals off (though that would be hilarious), but based on what we see here, the people who do this to President Bush should be doing it to Clinton as well. I don't know if this story will develop further, but I suppose it's possible that these people were conservatives mocking the lefty protestors who do this sort of thing, because I've just never heard of them doing this to their hero... Although, Sheehan has slammed Hillary, so maybe these were some of her troops?