Friday, October 7, 2005
Bill Clinton: U.S. Likely to Lose in Iraq
Ex-president Bill Clinton is predicting that the U.S. will lose the war in Iraq, saying "the odds are not great of our prevailing there."
In an interview with the Ladies Home Journal due out next month, Clinton calls the Iraq war "a quagmire" and warns "it could go wrong."
He reminded: "Since the end of World War II, the only major foreign power that succeeded in putting down an insurgency was the British putting down the Malay insurgency, but the British stayed 15 years."
"So you can say for historical reasons, the odds are not great of our prevailing there," he argued.
Despite Clinton's prediction of U.S. failure, he said analogies to Vietnam were not fair.
"The reason this is not Vietnam is that 58 percent of the eligible voters showed up and voted in Iraq," he told the Journal.
On the other hand, he said, the South Vietnamese government was "never legitimate" in the eyes of the Vietnamese.
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson immediately sought to tone down the ex-president morale-busting remarks, telling the New York Daily News:
"President Clinton has always been clear that there are reasons for optimism and that there clearly are reasons for concern with the current situation in Iraq. But no one has been clearer than President Clinton about the necessity of winning now that we are there."
Ex-president Bill Clinton is predicting that the U.S. will lose the war in Iraq, saying "the odds are not great of our prevailing there."
In an interview with the Ladies Home Journal due out next month, Clinton calls the Iraq war "a quagmire" and warns "it could go wrong."
He reminded: "Since the end of World War II, the only major foreign power that succeeded in putting down an insurgency was the British putting down the Malay insurgency, but the British stayed 15 years."
"So you can say for historical reasons, the odds are not great of our prevailing there," he argued.
Despite Clinton's prediction of U.S. failure, he said analogies to Vietnam were not fair.
"The reason this is not Vietnam is that 58 percent of the eligible voters showed up and voted in Iraq," he told the Journal.
On the other hand, he said, the South Vietnamese government was "never legitimate" in the eyes of the Vietnamese.
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson immediately sought to tone down the ex-president morale-busting remarks, telling the New York Daily News:
"President Clinton has always been clear that there are reasons for optimism and that there clearly are reasons for concern with the current situation in Iraq. But no one has been clearer than President Clinton about the necessity of winning now that we are there."
