Bill Clinton's Legacy. What Is His Crowning Achievement(Economy is not an answer)

[William F. Russell]

Helping to preserve affirmative action in institutions of higher learning.

"Amend it but don't end it."


I would also suggest the three-strike rule.

 

[Shogun]

Clinton did a lot of great stuff, but I'm always surprised that the Coli seems to give him a pass for the Al-Shifa bombing.

Spoiler: Operation Infinite Reach

ASHINGTON -- In the 14 months since President Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, his aides have steadfastly defended the decision. Clinton, they say, acted on evidence that left no doubt that the factory was involved with chemical weapons and linked to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile they blame for blowing up two American embassies in East Africa.

But an examination of the decision, based on interviews by The New York Times with key participants, shows that it was far more difficult than the Administration has acknowledged and that the voices of dissent were numerous.

Some officials said they were told that the President and his aides approved the operation -- code-named Infinite Reach -- to show that the United States could hit back against an adversary who had bombed American embassies simultaneously in two countries.

He warned that the link between bin Laden and the factory could be "drawn only indirectly and by inference," according to notes taken by a participant. The plant's involvement with chemical weapons, Tenet told his colleagues, was more certain, confirmed by a soil sample from near the site that contained an ingredient of nerve gas.

The bureau had written a report for Secretary Albright before the attack questioning the evidence linking Al Shifa to bin Laden. Now, the analysts renewed their doubts and told Assistant Secretary of State Phyllis Oakley that the C.I.A.'s evidence on which the attack was based was inadequate.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000831005711/http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/sudbous.htm

Germany's ambassador to Sudan from 1996 to 2000, Werner Daum, wrote an article in 2001 in which he called "several tens of thousands of deaths" of Sudanese civilians caused by a medicine shortage a "reasonable guess".[17] The regional director of the U.S. based Near East Foundation, who had field experience in the Sudan, wrote an article inThe Boston Globe with the same estimate and said "without the lifesaving medicine [the destroyed facilities] produced ... tens of thousands of people - many of them children - have suffered and died from malaria, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases ... produced 90 percent of Sudan's major pharmaceutical products ... Sanctions against Sudan made it impossible to import adequate amounts of medicines required to cover the serious gaps left by the plant's destruction ... Millions must wonder how the International Court of Justice in The Hague will celebrate this anniversary".[18] The Al-Shifa facility was "the only one producing TB drugs - for more than 100,000 patients, at about 1 British pound a month" and "the only factory making veterinary drugs in this vast, mostly pastoralist, country. Its speciality was drugs to kill the parasites which pass from herds to herders, one of Sudan's principal causes of infant mortality".[citation needed][19]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_pharmaceutical_factory#cite_note-17