The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Watch Your Back

3.23.04 @ 12:01AM

THE CLARKE AFFAIR
Re: George Neumayr's The Latest Clintonite Bashes Bush:

"Last night's 60 Minutes launched a week of shameless attacks by Clinton-Kerry forces who wouldn't know a terrorist if he blew himself up in front of them."

I must disagree with the statement above. The Clinton/DNC cabal knew the terrorists very well. They were receiving large chunks of cash and other valuable commodities from them so as to look the other way.
-- ERP
Flagler Beach, Florida

The news Sunday that a trusted Bush administration security official had apparently accused President Bush of both misfeasance and malfeasance in his policy against terrorists dismayed me and I went to bed in a funk. Even postings on the usually reliable Lucianne.com offered no relief for my dread of the morning and the inevitable Detroit Free Press's disclosure of the latest evidence of Bush's Machiavellian assault on the Muslim world. However in the morning, after tossing and turning all night, coming awake in a fever every half hour, I logged on to the Spectator and learned that Clarke was at the table next to Madame, Sandy, Holbrooke and Cohen, during his years of service for that administration.

Unfortunately, I suspect the fact of Clarke's actual provenance is like the sound not heard in the woods with no ears present -- the "main media" will refuse to record it, rendering it a non-fact. In fact the headline and story in the Free Press was "White House Denies the Claims by Ex-Official," with no reference to Clarke's past quixotic irenic efforts -- indeed none at all to his valiant Clintonite service.
-- J.R. Wheatley
Harper Woods, Michigan

Yeah! Yeah! Just pick on these individuals and ignore the facts that these government officials including a former cabinet member, Mr. O'Neill, are brave men who came out and told the truth. You can attack and smear them, but you cannot defend how this president and his administration have squandered our resources and put our next generation at risk with policies and programs that were unjustified and totally wrong.

Let us go to the root causes of terrorism. Al Qaeda, extreme Islamic forces, are the result of uneven handling of the Israel and the Palestinian conflict by U.S. and international Middle East policies.
-- Kenneth Ng

Regarding George Neumayr's column on Richard Clarke's back-stabbing the Bush administration: let this be a lesson to the President and his top advisers. Do not retain top level Clinton holdovers. This type of back-stabbing was present in almost every Republican administration since Reagan. In an attempt to appear "bipartisan" these holdovers end up leaking tips to the press and working to undermine the Republican administration they serve. Rare is the holdover who gives his complete loyalty to a GOP president. And once they're in, it's hard to get rid of them. Hopefully future administrations will heed this warning.
-- Dennis Vest
Gates, Tennessee

Why is it so astonishing that President Bush would have an inordinate interest in terminating the Iraqi regime after 9/11 attacks? It was official government policy to seek "regime change" in Iraq since a 1998 Congressional Resolution sought by the Clinton Administration. No other country had this distinction. Bush would have been derelict in his duties for not connecting a gross act of terrorism with Iraq in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
-- Jerome Brick
Beaver Dam, Arizona

I am relieved that so many saw the petty little man Clarke the way I saw him. Nervous, blustering and in denial as the interview blundered its way through the opening sixty minute program- segment. Soft ball garbage with little or no relevance to the truth, easily discredited by the guest's own contradiction of statements.

This was a Clinton professional in action.
-- L. Hyak
Vacaville, California

Not only did Lesley Stahl do a second rate job interviewing Richard Clarke about his book, but she covered herself in shame for failing to disclose the conflict of interest that exists between CBS (her employer) and Simon and Schuster (publisher of Clarke's book) and the ownership of both companies by Viacom. This wasn't a news interview as much as it was an infomercial for a book that served the political agenda of the companies involved.
-- Dick Melville
Ozone Park, New York

David Stockman was not an "establishment liberal" by any stretch of the imagination. Other than that, excellent piece.
-- David Dodenhoff

CHIANG AND CHEN
Re: Jed Babbin's Palm Beach County, Taiwan:

Mr. Babbin is a little disingenuous to suggest that Chiang Kai-Shek "stayed in the fight with us" during World War II. In fact, most of the fighting against the invading Japanese was done by the Chinese Communists, a fact not lost on the great Winston Churchill who dismissed Chiang as a crook. Is it really worth risking American interests for the sake of a showboater like Mr. Chen who is only concerned with his own place in history (others who have assumed this role in the past include Hitler and Milosevic)?
-- Craig Gerrard
Liverpool
Great Britain

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Education, Islam, Iraq, Iran, Israel, United Nations, Oil