CrooksandLiars: What Repubs said about the need for Kosovo exit strategy

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/stories/2005/08/17/heresWhatRepublicansSaidAboutClintonAndKosovo.html

Here's what Republicans said about Clinton and Kosovo

Why did they second-guess our commitment to freedom from genocide and demand that we cut and run?

"President Clinton is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be
away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."

-Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it."

-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/5/99

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."

-Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush


Why did they demoralize our brave men and women in uniform?

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning...I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."

-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)


"You think Vietnam was bad? Vietnam is nothing next to Kosovo."

-Tony Snow, Fox News 3/24/99


"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years"

-Joe Scarborough (R-FL)


"I'm on the Senate Intelligence Committee, so you can trust me and believe me when I say we're running out of cruise missles. I can't tell you exactly how many we have left, for security reasons, but we're almost out of cruise missles."

-Senator Inhofe (R-OK )

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarifiedrules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"I don't know that Milosevic will ever raise a white flag"

-Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"

-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99


Why didn't they support our president in a time of war?


"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."

-Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)


"This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem."

-Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

"The two powers that have ICBMs that can reach the United States are Russia and China. Here we go in. We're taking on not just Milosevic. We can't just say, 'that little guy, we can whip him.' We have these two other powers that have missiles that can reach us, and we have zero defense thanks to this president."

-Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)


"You can support the troops but not the president"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)


"My job as majority leader is be supportive of our troops, try to have input as decisions are made and to look at those decisions after they're made ... not to march in lock step with everything the president decides to do."

-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)


For us to call this a victory and to commend the President of the United States as the Commander in Chief showing great leadership in Operation Allied Force is a farce"
-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)


Why did they blame America first?

Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly."

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)


"Once the bombing commenced, I think then Milosevic unleashed his forces, and then that's when the slaughtering and the massive ethnic cleansing really started"

-Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)

"
Clinton's bombing campaign has caused all of these problems to explode"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)


"America has no vital interest in whose flag flies over Kosovo's capital, and no right to attack and kill Serb soldiers fighting on their own soil to preserve the territorial integrity of their own country"

-Pat Buchanan (R)


"These international war criminals were led by Gen. Wesley Clark ...who clicked his shiny heels for the commander-in-grief, Bill Clinton."

-Michael Savage


"This has been an unmitigated disaster ... Ask the Chinese embassy. Ask all the people in Belgrade that we've killed. Ask the refugees that we've killed. Ask the people in nursing homes. Ask the people in hospitals."

-Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL)


"It is a remarkable spectacle to see the Clinton Administration and NATO taking over from the Soviet Union the role of sponsoring "wars of national liberation."

-Representative Helen Chenoweth (R-ID)


"America has no vital interest in whose flag flies over Kosovo's capital, and no right to attack and kill Serb soldiers fighting on their own soil to preserve the territorial integrity of their own country"

-Pat Buchanan (R )


"By the order to launch air strikes against Serbia, NATO and President Clinton have entered uncharted territory in mankind's history. Not even Hitler's grab of the Sudetenland in the 1930s, which eventually led to WW II, ranks as a comparable travesty. For, there are no American interests whatsoever that the NATO bombing will
either help, or protect; only needless risks to which it exposes the American soldiers and assets, not to mention the victims on the ground in Serbia."

-Bob Djurdjevic, founder of Truth in Media

[ewagner]

1. Shove this down

Hannity's throat:

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"

-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Wouldn't that be a great comeback

For Hannity's "who said this" game?

He's always pulling up some obscure quote from Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton to use in a pop quiz for democrat guests.

[JimmyJazz]

7. I'm adding that to my sig line.

:)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. Never fear...this one will be making "repeat performances" on DU

:toast:

[Mr Rabble]

3. It never ends. I hate these people! nt

[tocqueville]

4. the US were/are never heavily involved on the ground in Kosovo

(or in Bosnia for that matter)

Out of the 50 000 troops sent by the KFOR, about 7000 US were involved during the campaign at it's height, and actually only 4000 put their foot on the ground in Kosovo. They entered LAST and got the easiest sector (to the East, near Macedonia). Today they are only 15% of the totally deployed force.

No one has been killed, what I know of.

Even if some criticism can be done about the air campaign, the fact is that a genocide has been stopped and most of the responsible war criminals are in jail.

[Cha]

5. This should be BLASTED

across every paper in the country and every Blog on the internet!

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
-Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush

[FrenchieCat]

9. Whooo....yes!

I going to write some letters to editors....utilizing these quotes.

These Flip-Floppers are not going to get away with this "talking out of both sides of their mouths" bullshit!

[Rageneau]

6. FReeper, thy name is hypocrite

Rethugs use one set of rules for themselves and a different set for everyone else. These quotes are solid proof of that. The same bozos who were criticizing Clinton when our troops were in the field are the ones who today shriek about how unamerican it is to criticize the president when troops are in the field. The same ones who criticized Clinton for 'no exit strategy' now take up for Bush even though the whole world can see that he has no exit strategy.

This kind of hypocrisy bubbles up again and again and again with Rethugs. And when the truth DOES confront them, all they do is deny it.

Take this post for example: At Free Republic, it would be pulled instantly and the poster would be called a liar and traitor. (At Free Republic everyone who disagrees with the trogdolytes is a liar and traitor).

The only FReepers who ever see the actual truth are those who secretly visit liberal websites like DU -- where NO story is too embarrassing to post.

[Igel]

10. Kosovo's not a shining success.

It's been a UN protectorate for 6 years, and still is "occupied". At least one brigade of National Guard are there (overseas deployment, no clear deadline for leaving).

Ethnic strife was largely resolved by ethnic cleansing, with destruction of numerous old churches and monasteries. The minority Serbs that are left still haven't gotten a proposal from the majority that doesn't treat them like West Bank Palestinians in "Greater Israel."

Those that were engaging in violence for independence have largely been rewarded. And threaten more violence unless their demands are met.

Unemployment is still unconscionably high, the politics are still a bit unsettled, the economy's mostly a wreck.

The success has been getting others (for their own political reasons) to pick up responsibility.

[keta11]

11. Every asshole freeper should be made to read this n/t

[returnable]

12. Heh. Well at least Buchanan's been consistent...

...who would've thunk it? :hi:

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Sometimes

I don't know whether to laugh insanely or cry rivers. :crazy: