XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism, alt.war.nuclear   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: lootin.loothor@splcenter.org   
      
   On 04 Dec 2021, Rudy Canoza  posted some   
   news:G1UqJ.164333$IW4.22778@fx48.iad:   
      
   > Bill Clinton said there were WMDs just like Monica's tits.   
      
   On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes against   
   Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s regime refused to cooperate with United   
   Nations weapons inspectors. The four-day bombing campaign by the United   
   States and Great Britain, code-named Operation Desert Fox struck military   
   targets throughout the country.   
      
   Clinton administration officials said the aim of the mission was to   
   “degrade” Iraq’s ability to manufacture and use weapons of mass   
   destruction, not to eliminate it. When Secretary of State Madeleine   
   Albright was asked about the distinction while the operation was going on,   
   she responded: “I don’t think we’re pretending that we can get everything,   
   so this is — I think — we are being very honest about what our ability is.   
   We are lessening, degrading his ability to use this. The weapons of mass   
   destruction are the threat of the future.”   
      
   While the bombing was ongoing, the Vanguards of Conquest, a terrorist   
   group, issued a communique to fellow Islamist groups calling for attacks   
   against the United States “for its arrogance” in bombing Iraq.   
      
   Some Republican members of Congress accused Clinton of using the   
   airstrikes to divert attention from ongoing impeachment proceedings that   
   had been lodged against him. (The day before the strikes took place, the   
   Republican-led House issued a report accusing Clinton of committing “high   
   crimes and misdemeanors,” related to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. The   
   charges centered on a sexual liaison in the Oval Office with an intern   
   that Clinton at first falsely denied had taken place.)   
      
   Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the GOP majority leader, called the   
   airstrikes’ timing “suspect” and “cursory.” Branding the strikes as a ploy   
   to direct attention away from the congressional impeachment initiative,   
   Republicans also predicted that the air attacks would ultimately prove   
   futile in persuading Hussein to comply with the U.N.’s demands. The GOP   
   took the view that only sustained bombardment of Iraq and the direct   
   overthrow of Saddam’s dictatorship could put a stop to Iraq’s purported   
   clandestine weapons program.   
      
   Clinton, however, in a televised address to the nation on this day,   
   brushed aside Republican criticism. He declared that the Iraqi president   
   was wrong if he thought “the serious debate [on impeachment] would   
   distract Americans or weaken our resolve to face him down.” The president   
   stressed that his decision to launch airstrikes remained critical to   
   America’s vital interests.   
      
   Ultimately, public and media attention focused on Clinton’s battle to save   
   his presidency and to avoid being found guilty in an all-but-certain   
   Senate trial. (The Senate acquitted him in February 1999.) Meantime, the   
   strikes failed to intimidate Saddam into allowing weapons inspectors   
   unfettered access to his alleged chemical and biological weapons of mass   
   destruction. Saddam’s stance ultimately led George W. Bush, Clinton’s   
   successor, to order an American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 — with   
   consequences that are evident to the present day.   
      
   https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/clinton-orders-airstrike-on-iraq-   
   dec-16-1998-232571   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)