November 29, 2001

Clinton's war

"If you want to understand why we are fighting this war, and how we became so vulnerable to our enemies, get yourself a copy of Barbara Olson's last book, 'The Final Days.' It's a delightful read, bursting with Barbara's passion for America and her contempt for the corrupt Clintons who did so much to weaken both our virtue and our awareness of our international mission.

"It is eerie to listen to Barbara list all the terrorists pardoned by the Clintons. All those Puerto Rican killers — their group carried out 130 bombings between 1974 and 1983 — pardoned in time for Hillary's Senate run in New York.

"To those who criticized him for the wholesale indulgences provided this striking array of terrorists, Clinton responded in his usual way: with a lie. For example, he blandly denied that any of the Puerto Rican terrorists had ever been convicted of 'crimes involving the killing or maiming of any individual.' They had actually killed and maimed several individuals.

"Barbara knew better than most that lies have consequences, and presidential lying about the gravity of terrorism contributed to our moral and intellectual disarmament during the Clinton years. He never devised a serious strategy to fight the terrorists because he didn't want to fight them. For Clinton, the entire issue was purely political, and a serious fight would have forced him to make real commitments and thereby limit his political options." —Michael Ledeen, writing on "The Barbara Olson Bomb," Tuesday in National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2001

Answers

Has the book become a best-seller? (I don't keep up with that sort of thing.) I hope so.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2001

I don't know what it is now, but for a while it was number one on Amazon's list, I believe. Could havehit the heights on other lists too. Bill O'Reilly's book is up there as well.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001