Do you believe there is a real "War on Terrorism"
After reading your post, I realize that I did not make myself clear. I in no way meant that they wanted to convert us or follow us here. I specifically meant that they would love to attack us here with the "get their claws over here" comment.
Blackadder, I would like to hear your thoughts on the Michael Butler situation though. I have always respected your post/opinions and I think that I benefit from hearing your side of things, even though I disagree with you more often than not.
I'm not much of a fan of Bill Clinton. I'm down on both parties really. Two shades of the same color...
You will have to tell me more about Michael Butler. Don't know the name. Is he related to the incident when the FBI was kicked out of Yemen when trying to investigate the USS Cole bombing?
As for Clinton in general, the fact that he ordered strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan at all indicates to me that he had some sense of the reality of the threat. But I suspect that after we hit nothing in Afghanistan and then bombed a pharmaceutical factory in a poor country that was shown to have no real connection to terrorism, he got gun shy.
He had a poor relationship with the Pentagon to start with. Putting myself in his shoes, I'd start to question the quality of the intel and the sense it would make to order attacks based on it when the likelihood of collateral damage and frayed relationships with other countries would result without actually hitting the intended target.
I do believe that there are claims made than there were subsequent opportunities where the chance to get Bin Laden or his lieutenants had a very high probablity of success but Clinton demurred. As usual, these are things we can't confirm for decades until the relevant documents are de-classified.
Whatever Clinton's failures, the Bush administration clearly did not have this on its radar either when it came into office. Bush was already thinking about going into Iraq, not getting Bin Laden...the FBI leadership in DC actually hampered ongoing investigations in field offices that were on the trail of the 9/11 hijackers and also warned agents off of pursuing leads that pionted to the Bin Laden family.
So, I think we are better off to deal with the fact dirty politics and bureacracy had a role to play in both administrations. Niether one is clearly to blame, both failed on some level and the failures, in my mind, are directly related to the deluded and self contradictory policies we pursue in the Middle East out of political expediency and deference to special interests.