Posted 12:52 PM by Robert

More "Plans"?

Former President Clinton now says that in the 1990's:

"We actually drew up plans to attack North Korea and to destroy their reactors and we told them we would attack unless they ended their nuclear program."

But he also says: i

I approve of the approach by President (George W.) Bush to work with the South Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Russians to end this program -- but make no mistake about it, it has to be ended.

Mr. Clinton certainly does not mention that he tried to put together an international coalition at the time. There were no reports of such attempts in the 1990's. He certainly did not repair to the United Nations to obtain any authorization to carry out his now-claimed "threat."

Is Mr. Clinton saying that he then planned to "attack North Korea" without any United Nations resolution? Without UN inspectors? Is he saying that he had actually created "plans" to launch an unprecedented military action on the doorsteps of South Korean, China, Japan and Russia without the consent of any of these countries? Is he saying that he drew up plans to launch a new Korean War without the consent of Congress?

And what about the "imminent threat doctrine" that supposedly prohibits United States attacks on a country that does not itself pose an imminent threat against the United States. That doctrine is cherished by many in the Democratic Party, the United Nations and the media, but has been repudiated by the Bush Administration as part of its Iraq plan. No comparable repudiation was effected by the Clinton Administration, but North Korea posed no imminent threat to this country. Was Mr. Clinton planning to attack North Korea without addressing the "imminent threat doctrine?"

OF COURSE NOT. MR. CLINTON ALMOST CERTAINLY DID NOT DRAW UP PLANS TO ATTACK NORTH KOREA IN THE 1990'S IN ANY MEANINGFUL WAY.

There seems to be a continuing pattern of post-White-House-partum delusion here. Sandy Berger previously asserted, with Mr. Clinton as his sometimes-second, that the Clinton Administration had also created "plans" to attack Afghanistan. Mr. Berger finally withdrew that assertion in Congressional testimony. The fate of those prior non-existent "plans" are discussed here and here and here.

Mr. Clinton's new claims will probably be withdrawn after it is "explained" and "clarified" that "drew up plans to attack North Korea"really means something like "somebody whose name was not written down shouted out in a Clintonian all-night 1990's "Bull Session" that if the North Koreans didn't watch out 'the United States might actually do something about it some day."

One wonders what the junior Senator from New York thinks about all this "planning."