The War on Terror: A Clinton Legacy

On February 26th, 1993 not quite a month into Bill Clinton's Presidency, the United States was attacked by the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Using Iraqi passports and trained by Iraqi bomb makers, the Al Qaeda terror cell exploded a bomb underneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing 6 and wounding over 1000 people. The admitted goal of this attack was to cause the North Tower to collapse into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, bringing both down in a hail of destruction. Rather than see this as an attack against our homeland, Bill Clinton saw this as a criminal act and prosecuted a trial against the attackers and no further significant action was taken against the Al Qaeda network.

On October 3rd, 1993 Bill Clinton was faced with his first real time situation as Commander-in-Chief. 18 US Army Rangers were killed and 84 other soldiers were wounded in the country of Somalia. One US soldier's body was dragged through the streets of the Capital, Mogadishu, provoking anger and the cry for justice from the American people.

While Bill Clinton talked a good talk, as Commander-in-Chief, he did not show the testicle fortitude needed to bring to bear the power of the US military. Bill Clinton pulled our troops out of Somalia within 5 months of that dreadful day. This pull out and the lack of follow through with the February attack, made a lasting impression on a certain Osama bin Ladin and other extremist in that region.

The terrorist were embolden by Clinton's inability to respond forcibly to the blatant attacks against our country and our soldiers. Osama said it best, when he addressed the Clinton Administration directly...

"But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where, after vigorous propaganda about the power of the U.S.A. and its post-cold war leadership of the new world order, you moved tens of thousands of international forces, including twenty-eight thousand American solders, into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu, you left the area in disappointment, humiliation, and defeat, carrying your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge, but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You had been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the heart of every Muslim and a remedy to the chests of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut, Aden, and Mogadishu."

In June of 1996, the Khobar towers were attacked; 19 US soldiers dead, 515 people wounded.
In August of 1998, 3 US Embassies were attacked; 220 dead, 4,000 wounded.
In October of 2000, the USS Cole was attacked; 17 US Sailors dead, 39 wounded and a US Naval Ship rendered inoperable.

In all of these attacks, Bill Clinton did not respond as the Commander-in-Chief but as a polished politician. Sure, there were some limited "strikes" against targets of opportunity and a couple of terrorist were prosecuted in court but the terrorist continued to wage a war that Bill Clinton refused to acknowledge.

In 2001, just eight months after Bill Clinton left office, the largest and most horrific attack against the United States occurred on Sept. 11th where 3000 Americans were killed and thus finally began the US response to the Global Terrorism. A US led war on terror.

We are now almost 5 years into the US led war on terror and there hasn't been an attack against our homeland since that day. We have lost approximately 2400 military service men and women in this war on terror and we have liberated more than 50 million people from tyrannical Islamo fascist rule and brutal dictatorship.

Now, a new front in the war on terror has developed. Somalia, the land that Bill Clinton abandoned more than a decade earlier has been over-run by Islamist who share the same ideology as Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In their rhetoric, they are mindful to remind the US of our hasty departure back in 1993. Citing it as a lost for the US and a victory for the Islamic movement.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairperson of the Islamic courts that have battled warlords for four months in Somalia, said the US would face a disaster similar to a botched 1993 intervention that left 18 US army officers and 300 Somalis dead.

"If US forces intervene directly against us in Mogadishu, then we are ready to teach them a lesson they will never forget and repeat their defeat in 1993," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Yes, terror attacks have killed US Citizens around the globe long before Bill Clinton was in office, but in the post cold war era...where the US was the remaining super power, no organization should have been able to wage such a campaign against us and we have Bill Clinton to thank for this.

Surprisingly, in a NPR Article titled, Somalia: Decades of Unintended Consequences written by Ted Koppel, there is barely a mention of Bill Clinton's contributions to the current war we find ourselves in. In fact, Koppel goes out of his way to blame both Bush Sr. and G.W. Bush for the "unintended consequences" he writes about in his article. The US and our allies are in battle against Islamic extremist for the safety of the modern world and Koppel has time to blame Bush for the unrest in a country Bill Clinton abandoned a decade ago. Koppel even went so far as to blame Bush Sr. for Bill Clinton's zero response to the killings in Rwanda where 800,000 people were slaughtered in less than a year.

"when the Canadian commander of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda desperately appealed for reinforcements to stop the killing, Washington, in particular, was not about to risk U.S. troops on another humanitarian mission in Africa."

said Koppel. A humanitarian mission that just so happen to have been started by Bush Sr. in 1992 in the country of Somalia.

I hate to disagree with such a distinguished media personality but this war and the unintended consequences we find ourselves in, is the legacy of the 2nd President in US history to be impeached; William Jefferson Clinton.

The war on terror is Bill Clinton's lasting legacy for the American people.

Mike DiBartolo
The Working Patriot (TWP)

Contributors to this article:
npr
US Dept. of State Terror Report
Mail&Guardian-online