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Hillary: Bush should thank Bill for military
2004-02-29
In a foreign policy speech at a Washington think tank, Sen. Hillary Clinton chided President Bush for not thanking her husband for handing the current administration such a strong military. The Democrat from New York told an audience at the Brookings Institution Bush is now engaged in "nation building" in Iraq, a concept he derided during his 2000 campaign.
She’s right although she ignores the fact that 9/11 changed many things.
"But from what I saw, the victories that we can look to in the post-conflict period in Iraq are largely due to the actions of our military," she said. "And not just our generals but, literally, all up and down the chain of command. And it has been an extraordinary display of American know-how and willingness to dig in and do some very difficult work, while still trying to engage the Iraqis and create a condition of stability and security."
It almost sounds as if she is pro-miltary. Where’s the punch line?
Clinton then noted that during the 2000 campaign, Vice President Cheney said there is almost nothing you can do to improve the quality of a military force created by your predecessors.
Valid point.
Cheney, she pointed out, wrote a letter to former President Reagan "thanking him for building the military that fought so capably. Well, I don’t know, but I don’t think any letters have yet arrived on the desks of anyone associated with the Clinton administration," she said.
That demand sort of pushing the envelope.
Critics, however, point to deep cuts in military spending during the 1990s and Clinton’s personal loathing for the military, which they contend led to low morale among the ranks. From 1990 to 1998, active Army ranks were reduced from 770,000 to 495,000. After the cuts, the Army had 10 active combat divisions compared to the 18 it had at the start of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The following also were cut:
  • 293,000 reservists;
  • two reserve divisions;
  • 20 Air Force and Navy air wings along with approximately 2,000 combat aircraft;
  • 232 strategic bombers;
  • 13 ballistic-missile submarines with 3,114 nuclear warheads on 232 missiles;
  • 500 ICBMs;
  • four aircraft carriers;
  • 121 surface-combat vessels and attack submarines, plus all the support basing, transport and logistic access, tanks, armored fighting vehicles, helicopters, etc.
I guess that OBL, Kim, Mullah Omar, and Sadaam are too busy to send their thanks although it would not supprise me to discover that Sadaam had expressed his appreciation by other means.
Posted by:Super Hose

#9  Amen, people, on the fucking idiot/ bitch!
I watched "Black Hawk Down" again last night and do I even have to finish my thought about how absolutely furious the Billary Clintoon mishandling of the military and our foreign policy makes me?!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro   2004-2-29 11:20:11 PM  

#8  ne1469 asks:
are the words "fucking bitch" allowed on Rantburg
Don't know about that, but I'm sure the words "fucking idiot" are. Why insult female canines? :-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2004-2-29 11:15:15 PM  

#7  So we have the Clintons to thank for a military every Democrat is saying is over-stretched, and over-committed?

(Oh, and don't forget that our latest deployment of troops is to clean up the mess Clinton installed. No, he's not responsible for Haiti; only the Haitians have the blame for their mess; but he IS responsible for installing Aristide.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-2-29 10:43:13 PM  

#6  Super Hose

good catch
Posted by: mhw   2004-2-29 9:22:47 PM  

#5  MHW and Cyber, I have proof that Hillary really does care about military issues. See this WND article Hillary complains to TV character
Writes to fictional 'White House aide' for suggesting base closure
for pertinent information.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-2-29 7:22:49 PM  

#4  are the words "fucking bitch" allowed on Rantburg. From time to time she makes sense, and then bam, she reminds me why she should never ever be trusted EVER.
Posted by: ne1469   2004-2-29 7:19:47 PM  

#3  The best thing that Bill did for the Military was to leave office. Clinton did NOTHING for the military. All he did was raise the Ops Tempo until the Military can BARELY do it's intended job. Sure we can topple any tin-horn dictator in the world but we are far from the 'two-front' Army that we need. We could add a third front for the Middle East.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2004-2-29 5:48:32 PM  

#2  If the Congress had not intervened, the armed forces would have been disasterously cut during the Clinton administration. This can be verified by looking at the Congressional record. Unfortunately the big media are too lazy and pro Hillery to do so but the various watcher groups are on it.
Posted by: mhw   2004-2-29 5:33:04 PM  

#1  This just angers me..........no words are possible to describe these people.

During dinners, having the Marines hid so no one could see them, but be close enough to serve my coffee when I want.... that was the use of "their" miltary.
Posted by: Just Me   2004-2-29 5:21:50 PM  

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