Outside the Beltway

CLINTON BACKS BUSH?

James Joyner · Wednesday, July 23, 2003 · 1 comment

Via John Cole of Balloon Juice comes this rather unexpected report from Fox News:

President Bush’s erroneous reference to an Iraqi-Africa uranium link was understandable, former President Clinton said Tuesday, in part because Saddam Hussein’s regime had not accounted for some weapons by the time Clinton ended his term in 2001.

Clinton’s comments reinforce one of the pillars of Bush’s defense of the war in Iraq — that his Democratic predecessor was never satisfied that Saddam had rid himself of weapons of mass destruction.

“When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for,” Clinton said during a televised interview.

Clinton said he never found out whether a U.S.-British bombing campaign he ordered in 1998 ended Saddam’s capability of producing chemical and biological weapons. “We might have gotten it all, we might have gotten half of it, we might have gotten none of it,” he said.

Interesting.

Clinton said ending tensions in Iraq should be the priority now — another echo of the current White House’s talking points. “We should be pulling for America on this. We should be pulling for the people of Iraq.”

Indeed.