Bill Clinton's Shrinky Dink Legacy

Ever get the idea that Bill Clinton just doesn't process that 9/11 occurred?

David Holman of The American Spectator does.

Here's his summary bit on Clinton's Iranian legacy:

Later that month, the Clinton administration eased sanctions against Iran and other terrorist nations. And a State Department report on terrorism-sponsoring states weakened criticism of Iran and welcomed relatively positive developments: "Tehran apparently conducted fewer anti-dissident assassinations abroad in 1998 than in 1997."

Clinton ought to know by now that the alleged reformer Khatami is powerless against the theocratic Shiites actually calling the shots in Iran. While Clinton mulled further appeasement during the summer of 1999, students demonstrating in favor of Khatami's reform policies and against repression were brutally silenced. The Clinton State Department blithely asked Iran not to harm the protesters. But otherwise it was silent.

Nineteen ninety-nine continued to be a banner year for U.S.-Iran relations under Clinton. He treated new evidence of Iran's hand in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing as an opportunity to seek a thaw in relations. That August, President Clinton sent President Khatami a mere letter asking for help in the investigation, three years after the fact. Even by pre-9/11 standards, Clinton was lax. The 2000 National Commission on Terrorism report faulted Clinton for not pressing Iranian cooperation harder.

We ought to thank Clinton for reminding us of his "years of sabbatical." He remains a pre-9/11 relic who's learned nothing from President Bush's strong foreign policy. A terrorist-sponsor like Iran he treats as a prodigal son needing nothing more than love and attention. Yet if Iran poses a nuclear threat and proves intractable, Bill Clinton will be as responsible as anyone.

Clinton's flaccid foreign policy was another progression of the Democratic cancer which began with FDR's appeasement of Stalin, continued through Kennedy's appeasement of Kruschev and LBJ's capitulation to Ho Chi Minh, accelerated with Jimmy Carter's complete surrender to the Ayatollah Khomeini, and found its apogee to date with Bill Clinton's complete capitulation over North Korean nukes, Iranian totalitarianism, the growth of Islamofascism, and Saddam Hussein's appeasement.

If ever there were a more feckless man to hold the reins of power than Bill Clinton, may God forgive him and succor his broken countrymen.