The Dastardly Legacy of Clinton I

[Classic: April 8, 1999] — As he ordered the bombing of Kosovo, Bill Clinton assured the nation that he has been “reading up on the history of that area.” That’s a load off! The great war-time presidents have always realized that before you bomb a country, you should read up on it.

Clinton described the decision as “a moral imperative.” He shouldn’t use the word “moral” without blushing; but then, as we learned last year, he doesn’t blush easily.

With Clinton, there is no such thing as a moral imperative. There is only what’s good for Bill Clinton. And he has never seen any percentage in going to war, except when he has needed a momentary distraction, as he did several times last year.

Clinton’s political style has always been selling and swapping favors — you give to me, and I give to you, as the song goes. That’s normal politics, and though it’s corrupt, it tends to keep a country out of war, which interrupts the peaceful exchange of graft.

Public men always have their private motives, but some of them manage to subordinate their personal interests to their country’s good. This isn’t the way most observers would describe Clinton. Nobody can predict how his life will end, but I think we can rule out hara-kiri.

When Clinton took the oath of office in 1993, an exciting world of possibilities lay open to him, including presiding over “the most ethical administration in our history.” Six years later time and character have taken their toll, and war is one of the few options he has left. He wouldn’t be doing it unless he thought it was good for him.

What will history say about him? Seymour Hersh has written a book about “the dark side” of the Kennedy administration. I doubt that anyone will ever refer to Clinton’s “dark side.” It would be a little like referring to the “dark side” of Stalin: there is no other side that matters.

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“Legacy” is one of 82 essays in Joe Sobran’s collection of his writing on the President Clinton years, titled Hustler: The Clinton Legacy (Griffin Communications, 2000).

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