"We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all of the motives which produced them."
- Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), French author
On 60 Minutes tonight, Leslie Stahl interviewed Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council member. Clarke, who served in the the last four administrations and is now retired, had nothing positive to say about President Bush's handling of terrorism pre or post 9-11. He suggested that if Bush had listened to him, the 9-11 attacks could possibly have been prevented.
Clarke, upset that Iraq was being viewed as a possible target after the attacks on our homeland, urged the Cabinet to focus on Afghanistan instead, which eventually they did. The discussions leading up to that decision, however, didn't meet with Clarke's approval, though they seemed logical to me. Many possibilities, including Iraq, were considered, each weighed, and Afghanistan emerged as the initial objective.
My impression as I listened to Clarke was that he has an axe to grind, did it in his interview, and plans to continue doing it in his new book Against All Enemies. Why? I don't know, but would bet he has a problem with Bush. That's politics as usual, but trying to convince viewers that his cause is noble was a stretch.
Many bloggers are commenting. Two good ones are John H. Hinderacker's PowerLine post for a "right" view and Brad Delong's Semi-Daily Journal for a "left" perspective.
Update: The White House rebuttal to Clark's allegations.
2 comments:
Clarke may have an axe to grind. He was demoted from cabinet level to staff level and, according to Cheney on Rush's show, was kept "out of the loop." (Strange to keep your counterterrorism chief out of the loop, eh?). But it's strange how the right is dismissing Clarke as a Clintonite critic -- he's a conservative career official who also worked for Reagan and Bush 41.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. With seven months to go before the elections, I think we will see many more "revelations" from both sides of the aisle.
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