Earlier this year, the Iraqi phase of the Clinton/Gore '96 Campaign lit up the skies over Baghdad with the rocket's red glare and the bombs bursting in air as volleys of U.S. Cruise missiles at a million a pop tore into military installations in the south of Iraq (we hope).
The actual utility of the attack is dubious. The installations thus attacked were back online in a matter of a week or so. The purported purpose of the attack, to protect the Kurds in the North of Iraq, seemed rather patently silly in the face of revelations that the legitimate government in the area had requested Saddam's help, and Saddam, respectful of the northern "no fly" zone, had driven his support in.
Now just for a moment, recall the Los Angeles riots that followed the trial of four police officers accused of beating Rodney King. The legitimate regional government requested help from the President and got it. Can you imagine how it would have looked for the Soviets to launch a cruise missile attack on Washington on behalf of the black rioters? And yet, this is exactly the case of what happened in Iraq.
What started out as a photo-op for Bill Clinton to look like a leader soon mutated into the foreign policy debacle of the decade as most of the former coalition members refused support for the cruise missile attacks. The Arab League, meeting in emergency session, voted to unanimously resist further U.S. interventions in internal affairs, creating a power vacuum in the region that the new Russian Republics are eagerly stepping into.
As a result of Clinton's over-reaction to an internal dispute, Iraqi oil that had been scheduled for sale just the next week was embargoed. This probably made some other suppliers (like CIA connected Caribbean Continental in Zurich, with a refinery at Batman, Turkey) rub their hands in glee. But for the rest of us, oil prices have headed upwards with no sign of slowing.
Oil futures are trading at extremely high prices, as we head into a harsh winter with heating oil stocks already in short supply because the expected flow of oil from Iraq was cut off by Bill Clinton.
We will all be paying higher fuel prices for years to come, because of Bill Clinton's attack on Iraq.
Way to go, Bill. Great foreign policy. What's the matter, did Saddam refuse to make a donation the way the Taiwanese did?
