Unexpectedly, even to himself, national security expert Ralph Peters is seeing stars over... Bill Clinton.
I never thought I'd give Bill Clinton a standing ovation. But last week in Qatar I did just that.Posted by Alan at January 19, 2004 09:49 AMOur former president gave the most perfectly pitched, precisely targeted speech I've ever heard to a hall filled with Muslim intellectuals and officials. And they listened.
We all know that Bill Clinton can speak persuasively, of course. But in this case the message mattered. Clinton just may have been the only American who could have reached that unforgiving crowd.
He didn't pander. He made America's case and made it well. Beginning with a sometimes-rueful look at the progress his administration had failed to make and noting that the wars that plague the world are begun by men his own age or older, but paid for in blood by the young, he refused to direct one syllable of blame at the Bush administration. Accepted as a citizen of the world, he spoke as a convinced American.
Asked by an eager-to-Bush-bash delegate if he, Bill Clinton, would have behaved differently after 9/11, our former president said he would have followed an identical course, pursuing our enemies into Afghanistan and beyond. Queried about his position on Iraq, he stated that any disagreements he might have would be most appropriately expressed at home in the U.S., not before a foreign audience.
He could have made an easy score. Instead, he did the right thing. Clinton has become the perfect statesman.
via the New York Post
Tip via Outside the Beltway