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WASHINGTON (AFP) Sept. 19, 2005 — Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the Iraq War, the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.
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Former US President Bill Clinton is mobbed by well-wishers on the banks of Hangzhou's West Lake in China. AFP/WCPV/File/Natalie Behring
Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq “virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction”.
The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism “and undermined the support that we might have had,” Clinton said in an interview with an ABC’s “This Week” program.
More to follow below the fold »»
Clinton said there had been a “heroic but so far unsuccessful” effort to put together a constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq. The US strategy of trying to develop the Iraqi military and police so that they can cope without US support “I think is the best strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that,” said Clinton.
On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities’ failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm’s strike on August 29. People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind.
The CGI is aimed at wiping out poverty, ending conflict, rolling back climate change and promoting better governance worldwide. With more than 170 heads of state and government gathered in New York for the UN summit, former U.S. President Bill Clinton opened the inaugural meeting.
“We have an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up — in just three days, we can begin to make a world of difference,” says Clinton’s mission statement on the CGI website.
If the CGI’s stated aims seem somewhat grandiose, Clinton has the formidable personal contacts to mute the sceptics. The three-day confab’s participants include US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
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The Democrats should unite for a concerted, determined attack on the failures of Bush | VP Cheney | Karl Rove | NeoCon policies.
There should be a continues stream of protest and demonstrations, just like a Caribbean wind that only changes when it swells in strength into a demolishing hurricane. Winds of change for our Orange Revolt and regime change in Election 2006.
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Former Presidents tend not to criticize current ones and new administrations tend to not investigate the failures of or prosecute the previous one.
These are not bad traditions. They encourage and enhance stability and respect and cooperation.
This administration… the bush/cheney administration… has broken the rules. This administration does not deserve respect nor should they be guarded by such traditions.
This is not a step to take lightly but when a Presidency has failed on so many levels, in so many ways, in so many areas, to such a degree as this one has… when an administration has broken the laws and pillaged the nations treasurey and killed so many through it’s negligence and profiteering, when it has ignored The Constitution and placed it’s own political concerns as it’s only concern so far above those of the people that the needs and concerns of the people are not even on their radar…
… then all bets are off.
President Clinton, President Carter, (Vice) President Gore ought to join together to lead the way and lead the party in a full assault on this failure of a Presidency, on this disasterous failure of reagan/bush conservatism.
And when the next Democrat is elected President in 2008 any and all investigations into this administration that have been blocked or stymied should be persued to the fullest degree. This nation cannot afford to sweep the complete and utter corruptness, incompetence, and un-americanness of the bush/cheney administration under the rug.
No more I say. No more.
In 2008 we need a UN Truth Commission in the USA!
I’m not sure I’d call it “withering,” but it certainly seems so compared to the Bush pandering he was doing before this. Welcome on board, Bill. We have been waiting for you. Considering what a political creature he is, maybe when he turns on them it means that the tipping point really has been reached.
One can only hope, Kansas, one can only hope!
Power Line has comments on this story (I won’t link) – material for belly laughs from top to bottom. Isn’t that Hinderaker something:
The most interesting part of this for me is the photograph. Look how happy people in another country l are to see Clinton. That just doesn’t happen with the Bush.
I wish that Bill and the Democrats would be more withering in their criticism. Where is the fire that I thought Howard Dean would bring to the party?
That struck me, too (how happy the crowd is). People love that man, probably because he loves and cares about people.
And, yeah, it’s about time Bill did some criticising.
Why a retired former President feels compelled to become the point man for this discussion? Time for Bill to be playing golf, doing some fund-raising for Katrina relief efforts and the like. Criticism of the current administration is generally reserved for opposition party “leaders” and Presidential hopefuls.
Kerry got into GW pretty good today as well, but to my knowledge has shown no interest in running again. What about the other Dems?
(Vice) President Gore has been giving rip-snorting speeches, too. Oh, and in his spare time he’s been busy airlifing people out of NOLA at his own expense (!), instead of shutting down relief operations for photo-ops!
At this rate, pretty soon even Boo will decide he’d make a good candidate in ’08.
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He says the poor fared better under his administration
WASHINGTON Sept. 19, 2005 — Bill Clinton, asked by his successor George Bush to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, offered harsh public criticism of the Bush Administration’s relief efforts, saying, “You can’t have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up”.
Former US president Bill Clinton joined Ghana's president John Agyekum Kufuor in Accra of a foundation to help poor people register land and other property, to gain access to loans, to improve livelihoods and promote development.Mr Clinton broke with tradition under which former US presidents restrain criticism of their successors. His comments, in an interview on the US ABC network on Sunday, could prove awkward for the White House, given Mr Bush’s eagerness to involve his Democratic predecessor in a prominent role to raise money for the hurricane’s victims.
Mr Clinton said the storm highlighted class divisions in the country that often played out along racial lines. “It’s like when they issued the evacuation order,” he said. “That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn’t have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn’t have cars, so they couldn’t take them out.
“This is a matter of public policy,” he said. “And whether it’s race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that’s a consequence of the action made. That’s what they did in the ’80s; that’s what they’ve done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy.”
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DON’T BLAME THE POOR FOR SUFFERING
People without transportation are not only the poor, but also senior citizens that have paid our taxes for our lifetime that no longer have the eyesight or the ability to drive; we no longer qualify for a driver’s license.
Some seniors are also poor as our spouses have died and our income was then reduced. If we were fortunate enough to have acquired a pension or planned out our savings for our retirement, we now find them being reduced each year with higher medical costs and a higher cost of living. Just look at the priceof gasoline today and medical insurance.
Some of those in the Superdome could have been a paraplegic or amputees from serving our nation in Vietnam. While the rich like Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush stayed home using their influence to stay out of the war, while the poor people were the ones being drafted to fight for their rights and freedoms.
Coast Guard sailors patrol the street in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. A huge military presence has arrived in the city, restoring order and bringing with them food and water to feed the thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina. AP Photo/Eric GayWhen it comes to taxpayer money, you will find the businessmen who lost their business in Katrina first in line at the FEMA office to get their handout just like the poor homeowner. We find the farmer, like our Senator Gordon Smith, receiving his farm subsidy check each year, but it’s OK if the rich do this, but let a poor person or senior citizen ask for assistance and it becomes welfare in the eyes of the right wing.
When my ancestors arrived in these United States, they were greeted by the Statue of Liberty with the saying:
“Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.”
How things have changed over the years.
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the elderly and disabled…
It’s so easy for the people around me to brush it all off as “well it’s just the poor people – who cares”.
All I hear is that we should not be blaming Bush for an act of G-d (but wasn’t he in contact with him??? You know, he does say he has talks with G-d all the time)
We don’t have time to blame politicians for the delays and complete clusterfuck, we are busy BLAMING the poor, elderly and minorities. That is the call of the Red Regime.
“Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.” has now been changed to “Shoot to Kill”
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… Bill Clinton while in New York to launch a program aiming to tackle poverty and climate change.
The Clinton Global Initiative hopes to find solutions to problems including religious conflict and governance. It brings together politicians, business leaders, activists and academics by asking them to take specific action in any one of several areas.
Mr Clinton chaired a discussion between Mr Blair, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and King Abdullah of Jordan, as he unveiled the first four commitments at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan.
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore speaks on the environment during the CGI Summit in New York. Former President Bill Clinton wheeled and dealed on Friday at his Clinton Global Initiative summit, yielding promises from global leaders to do things to make the world a better place and bringing the value of aid commitments over two days to nearly $500 million. REUTERS/ Ramin Talaie▼ ▼ ▼
I think Bush’s cynical relief effort was the final straw for old Clinton.
We need to rollback Bush’s tax cuts. Tax cuts to maximize profits for corporations. Tax cuts to protect dividend income. Tax cuts that will be paid for by people who did not benefit from them in the first place. People like our children. The Bush family and their cronies are using the whitehouse to wage class warfare. Lining their pockets then making the commoners pay their debt for them.