It's Too Easy to Blame Clinton

Revisionist historians who still cannot accept the fact that Bill Clinton was twice elected president are now working hard to sell the theory that because President Clinton didn't do enough to confront terrorism, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network were able to unleash the nightmare of September 11. Twenty-twenty hindsight is a wonderful gift, but if America was lackadaisical about terrorism before September 11 there is plenty of blame to be shared - and plenty of lessons to be learned.

Should the Clinton administration have done more to take on terrorism? Absolutely - Clinton has said so himself in recent weeks. For that matter, Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush should have done more. The terrorist murders of Marines in Lebanon and the periodic kidnappings and killings of Americans in the Middle East during their years in office were met by tough rhetoric but little or no action. "Terrorists, and those who support them, must and will be brought to account", declared President Reagan in June of 1985 in response to hostage-taking in Lebanon. Terrorists, and their supporters, such as oil-rich Syria, were never brought to account by President Reagan or his successor.

The first attempt to destroy the World Trade Center came just two months into President Clinton's first term, and in retrospect was the beginning of Mr. bin Laden's attempt to destroy what he regarded as a symbol of American economic might. At the time, however, the attack was regarded by press, public and politicians not as the beginning of a campaign against America but the end of one, as the assault that left six people dead failed to do major harm to the towers and the perpetrators were arrested, tried and jailed.

In 1998, truck bombs detonated at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 244 people, but the Clinton administration's response was muted. However, would Americans, the Vietnam quagmire still fresh in their minds, have tolerated an aggressive response that involved putting U.S. troops in danger? Unlikely. Would Americans have supported the federalizing of airport security and the adoption of other tough domestic measures to anticipate terrorism? Unlikely as well.

The embassy attacks eventually caused Mr. Clinton to order the launching of a volley of cruise missiles at a suspected al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. This came during the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, prompting congressional Republicans and Clinton-hating pundits to hoot that he was "wagging the dog" - shorthand for beginning a foreign military operation to distract Americans from a domestic political scandal. Those same politicians and pundits today, however, blithely assert that Mr. Clinton should have followed up his attack on the suspected camp more aggressively, forgetting or conveniently ignoring their response at the time.

The current war on terrorism is a belated one, and if blame must be handed out it can be shared by several presidents, hundreds of congressmen, the press and the American public. September 11 shook America out of its isolationist lethargy. What America did or didn't do before September 11 matters less than what America has done and will continue to do after September 11.