In his speech last night, Bill Clinton said this:
But Clinton was too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief in 1992. He was handed an enviable situation in foreign policy: 12 years of Reagan and Bush had resulted in victory without a shot in the Cold War, and the defeat of Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. Clinton then managed in his first two years to preside over an embarrassment in Haiti, a debacle in Somalia, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and genocide in Rwanda. Over the rest of the decade, Clinton managed to allow further erosion in the position of American strength he inherited. Clinton didn’t, as he now claims, lead us “to a new era of peace.” He inherited a hard-won peace, failed to lead, and part of his legacy is 9/11. It was understandable (if unfortunate) that in 1992, after the end of the Cold War, the American people would think they could afford a president who would fatuously think it enough to claim to be “on the right side of history” (whatever that means), rather than being willing to make tough decisions. I doubt Americans are so complacent today.
