After Bill Clinton lost his cool aggressively defended his counter-terrorism strategies on Fox News, Condoleezza Rice dropped the first bomb from the Bush Administration:

“What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” said Rice.

I can’t tell if she meants that Bush’s eight months equalled Clinton’s eight years, but in terms of results, that seems fair.  No one being caught is no one being caught no matter how long it takes.  0=0.  The war on terrorism started on Sept. 11th - it simply wasn’t a major issue until then, and Bush, not Clinton, has had the responsibility of declaring and fighting the war.

So when Clinton tries to pretend that the war on terrorism was so well planned-out by his administration:

The secretary of state also sharply disputed Clinton’s claim that he “left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy” for the incoming Bush team during the presidential transition in 2001.

“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda,” Rice responded during the hourlong session.

This claim isn’t true.  Clinton couldn’t have left a comprehensive anti-terrorist strategy, because terrorism in 2000 was not the same as terrorism post-9/11.  For the U.S. Government, the climate changed.

What did the plan say, “kill Osama bin Laden”?  How “comprehensive” is “comprehensive” before a post-9/11 world?  In Clinton’s reign, most of us wouldn’t have dreamed not being able to take toothpaste on planes.  We live in a different world even now.  Clinton’s presidency is ancient history, and he doesn’t need to defend it anymore.

No matter how ‘comprehensive’ any strategy was, it became outdated very, very quickly.  Is there any evidence that the Clinton administration would have done enough to fight al-Qaeda and stop it before 9/11 happened?  If there is, feel free to post it on the boards.

As Condi said,

“It’s as if we were in a good place on Sept. 11. Clearly, we weren’t.”

It was Clinton’s Presidency that was supposed to leave us in a ‘good place.’

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