"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." -- December 1, 1862 - Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress
The Clinton administration has dealt with six high-profile problems- Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Bosnia, North Korea and Serbia/Kosovo -which demanded presidential attention, resulted in the deployment of U.S. military forces, and generated congressional and public controversy. All were small-scale operations when compared with U.S. involvement in major twentieth-century conflicts. Yet they are significant because the way they were handled may determine the way future large-scale emergencies are managed by John Kerry.
Shall we see how each panned out?
I opened this post with a quote, I'll close with what must be the Clinton Administration's most infamous last words; uttered in 1996 after the US declined to detain Usama Bin Laden in Sudan.
Posted by feste at February 9, 2004 08:20 PM | TrackBack
"He lost his base and momentum," said Samuel R. Berger, Mr. Clinton's national security adviser in his second term.