Republicans react to Clinton over Kosovo

Let's read what the republicans had to say about Clinton and Kosovo.

"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)

"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)

"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"


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)[amen preach it Tom!]


"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




Interesting comparrisons and how it looks when
the shoe is on the other foot..truly interesting.

 

OldRegular you crack me up!

 

As if Right wing blogs are going to carry this
or comprise a list like this..come on..get real.
Besides views moderate to conservative to liberal
are freely expressed here on this board..democrat
to republican...you must of not looked very hard.

someone did a comparison plain and simple and
and is applying it to todays words.

someone is making a good case for hypocrisy in
the first degree. imho


The one that is most important I think is the
one Tom Delay said and it is the one that
applies today and is a good counter to those
who say "you must support the presidents policies
to support the troops" which is bunk..so here is
what Tom Delay said back int the late 90's

"You can support the troops but not the president"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)[amen preach it Tom!]

http://democraticwhip.house.gov/media/press.cfm?pressReleaseID=76

http://slate.msn.com/id/2079324

 

"...and I agree with Mr. Delay. You can support the troops and be against a war,..."

but then Delay shows hypocrisy when the shoe
is on his foot he needs to make up his mind.imho

Here are some more..the salient point is that
it is interesting to see the shoe on the other
foot and the hypocrisy of Republicans and hawks
blast others for not supporting bush and equating
it to supporting the troops.


• “I think it's hypocritical to say on the one hand that you support the troops while on the other hand you say the reason they are risking their lives is wrong. I think it undermines the effort and the unity this country ought to be showing right now."- Rep. Tom DeLay, Washington Times, 3/20/03

• “Well, I think it's not the time to be questioning this president on how he is carrying out the war. George W. Bush, thank God we have him as president right now and thank God that we've got all of the people that he has, really strong individuals that around him, fighting this war…The President’s doing it under great criticism, unfortunately, but hopefully, that criticism will now come to an end, and we we'll all unify and support our troops and support the effort and win the war.” – Rep. Tom DeLay, CNN InsidePolitics 3/19/03

• “This destructive rhetoric does nothing more than demoralize our troops and second-guess our commander in chief.” – Rep. Tom DeLay, Press Release, 3/20/03


WHAT OTHER REPUBLICAN LEADERS SAID…


• “A lot of folks were working on folks. In my mind, it had the potential to be a second Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, at least in terms of air power, in endorsing an objective which has yet to be defined.” Current House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (who voted against S.Con.Res. 21), as quoted in the Washington Post, 4/30/99

• “If there is a war, this is a Clinton war, in my opinion.” Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (who voted against S.Con.Res. 21), on ABC’s World News Tonight, 4/29/99

• “Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, this is the most inept foreign policy in the history of the United States. The Pentagon told the President not to bomb, that it would only exacerbate the problems. We have forced over 1 million refugees. 2,012 were killed in Kosovo prior to the bombing. NATO has killed more Albanians than the Serbs did in an entire year, and yet we have exacerbated those problems.” Rep. Cunningham, Floor statement, 4/28/99

• “We want to say, Mr. President, your relationship between the executive branch in this government and the Congress of the United States, the legislative branch of this government, comes before your relationship with allied nations; that in order to have a unified American government presence on any position we should take, Mr. President, we should come to agreement within this great government first.” Former Majority Leader Dick Armey (who voted against S.Con.Res. 21), Floor Statement, 4/28/99

• “Mr. Speaker, this evening the House had an emotionally charged debate about our policy in Kosovo, and contrary to remarks made after the vote, this was not a vote against the troops. This was a vote against the policy of this administration. All of us support the troops and the young men and women who are doing their duty.” Rep. Ed Whitfield, Statement, 4/28/99


MORE REPUBLICAN CRITICISM OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF - BOSNIA IN 1995…


In November and December of 1995, Congress debated the deployment of United States Armed Forces to Bosnia and Herzegovina. H.R. 2606 was a Republican bill offered to prohibit the use of funds from being used for the deployment of U.S. forces in the region. H.R. 2606 passed the House 243-171, but failed in the Senate 22-77.

In addition, the Republican-led House Resolution 302 “reiterates serious concerns and opposition to the President’s policy” regarding the deployment of American peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This Resolution passed 287-141. In contrast, a Resolution offered by Democrats (H. Res. 306), which “unequivocally supports the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who are carrying out their mission in support of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” was defeated 190-237, with 219 Republicans voting against it.


• “It is neither in the President's nor the country's best interests to forge ahead with a plan to send United States troops to Bosnia without the full support of the American people through their representatives… Congress has a duty to exercise its power of the purse when it feels the President is making a grave mistake.” Majority Leader DeLay, Floor Statement, 11/17/95

• “I believe the President has made a grave mistake. He has put Americans in danger without clearly articulating what national security interest requiring the use of United States forces is at stake in Bosnia.” Majority Leader DeLay, Floor Statement, 11/17/95

• "US troops will be deployed in Bosnia no matter what the Congress does. Congress should support the troops without endorsing the president's policy." Sen. Arlen Specter, CNN, 12/14/95

• “Even though, as Commander in Chief, the President has the constitutional authority to commit United State soldiers to Bosnia, I cannot support a plan that does not minimize the risks to, and maximize the security of, our troops, especially a deployment that is not vital to our national security interest.” Rep. Sam Brownback, Floor Statement, 12/14/03

• “It is because I support the troops, because I am concerned about their well-being, that I am opposed to sending troops to Bosnia. I have no doubt that the Americans who serve in the Armed Forces of the United States will go where their Commander in Chief sends them. They will serve proudly. They will do their job well. That is not the issue here.” Sen. Phil Gramm, Floor Statement, 12/6/95


WHAT OTHERS SAID…


• “DeLay, the Republican House Whip who rounded up votes for impeachment, pushed his colleagues hard to oppose a Democratic resolution supporting the air war. He did so even though House Speaker Dennis Hastert backed the Resolution.” Syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne, in the Washington Post, 5/4/99

• “There was only one thing worse than Clinton’s war, as House Republican Whip Tom DeLay liked to call it. That was Clinton’s peace.” Syndicated columnist Mary McGrory, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/12/99

• “Of course, dissent is not disloyalty, and of course, Tom Daschle -- who spent from 1969 through 1972 in uniform as an Air Force intelligence officer -- personally has more active-duty military experience than DeLay, Hastert and Lott, to say nothing of Vice President Dick Cheney, combined. At a time when three out of four college graduates served in the military, this quartet of red-white-and-blue patriots figured out how to game the system and qualify for deferments to skip the burden of defending the nation they so obviously love.”- Mark Shields, CNN, 3/24/03

• “‘This is his [President Clinton’s] war,’ said DeLay the other day. And DeLay will be damned if he is going to do anything to help Clinton in his war. ‘The president will run the president’s war,’ he said. ‘We’ll consult with the president, but we’ll get our work done.’ And what is that work? Well, part of it seems to be giving aid and comfort to the Yugoslavian war aims and working against the war aims of the United States. . . This is not ‘his’ war. It is ours. And people who do not understand that do not understand the idea of nationhood, and they call into question their own fitness to lead.” - Syndicated columnist Michael Kelly, 5/4/99

• “Let us not forget: Debate and dissent are the very oxygen of democracy. This nation was founded not by conformists or the complacent, but by dissenters who had the courage to defend their beliefs and their homeland -- which sounds a lot more like Tom Daschle than his critics. “ - Mark Shields, CNN, 3/24/03

• “Maybe any politician who said these things is, in DeLay's words, unfit for national leadership. If so, DeLay has the power to remove that politician from office today. These things were never said about Bush's war in Iraq. They were said on the House floor four years ago—on March 11, April 28, and May 6, 1999—about President Clinton's war in Kosovo. And they were said not by Howard Dean, but by Tom DeLay.” – William Saletan, Slate, 3/26/03

http://democraticwhip.house.gov/media/press.cfm?pressReleaseID=76