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| Middle East |
| Bill Clinton Comes Through! |
| 2004-01-19 |
| In the "Who’da thunk it" category, in an article written for the NY Post, Ralph Peters sounds positively stunned by a performance Bill Clinton gave before (not necessarily friendly audience at) a "Conference on the future of the Middle East’s relations with America". Major emphasis on "positive" and "stunned". "Our 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. Clinton’s lecture closed a worthwhile, if often exasperating, conference on the future of the Middle East’s relations with America. Sponsored by the Emir of Qatar and organized by the Brookings Institution, the event brought together a combination of the usual suspects and outside ringers for vigorous, open discussions. A few of the sessions did manage to move a fragile half-step beyond the "everything that isn’t Israel’s fault is America’s fault" mantras that sedate Middle Eastern societies. Still, by the closing luncheon, I’d had about enough of Muslim "authorities" whose versions of their own history had collapsed into easy myths and for whom the Koran had become a document to be used as selectively as the phone book. Enter Bill Clinton. Now, after serving in Washington during the Clinton administration and hearing our former president chatter for checks more recently, my expectations were that he would do no harm, but little good. I was wrong. As soon as he took the podium, Clinton began taking stands as brave as they were necessary. With virtuoso skill, he led the audience where they needed to go - while convincing them it was where they had wanted to end up all along. His sense not only of what required saying, but of how best to express it to that complex, contrary audience was almost supernatural. 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." An article worth reading. Not a fan of Bill, I am happy to read that he seems to be doing good by us (US). Unexpected; like finding something you’d lost and thought gone forever. I’ll take good news where I can find it. |
| Posted by:Whiskey Mike |
| #6 Speaking for myself, this does little, if anything, to atone for all that has transpired as a result of his feckless foreign policy and his cavalier attitude toward our enemies. I have little doubt that a reason, but probably not the reason for this speech is to try to salvage his "legacy". Well, it's too late for that. Sure, Clinton is saying what needs to be said, but there is no political price for him to pay by doing so now, as opposed to saying it while he was in office. "Brave stands", indeed. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-20 12:23:35 AM |
| #5 And he's being praised for what other presidents until Carter did??? Stop criticism at the shore? Bet they loved that message, I would have bombed you, too. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2u 2004-1-19 11:58:01 PM |
| #4 --The administration shouldn't be too proud to ask for the help it needs from Clinton - who clearly misses the buzz and wants to serve.-- Legacy issues and Evita as pres. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2u 2004-1-19 11:56:56 PM |
| #3 I'm in shock... it's a pleasant sort of shock... but still shock. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-1-19 11:31:46 PM |
| #2 Wow. I am surprised. Of course, I would be outright shocked if this was not an election year -- perhaps Clinton realizes that pandering to foreign audiences at the expense of a Republican administration right now will be dimly viewed by a significant number of potential Democratic voters. Here is the Web site for the forum. I can't find a transcript yet, but the Multimedia section suggests that they might eventually post it there. |
| Posted by: Carl in NH 2004-1-19 10:50:04 PM |
| #1 ...a hall filled with Muslim intellectuals Must've been tough to get a cab down there for a couple of hours... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-1-19 10:42:25 PM |