Oliver North and his Supposed Remarks

June 27, 2004

Richard J. Garfunkel

Of course that was quite provocative and assuming it is accurate, (it wasn’t) an ironic twist of history. Unfortunately Colonel North, had lost a great deal of creditability by then and one of the reasons he was in front of a Congressional panel was his involvement in the Iran-Contra mess. Of course he had been supporting a covert war in Nicaragua, in direct violation of a Congressional ban on the funding of the Contras that came from selling arms to our “friends” in Iran. Our great “pragmatic” hero Ronald Reagan withdrew from Lebanon in 1983 after 241 Marines were killed as a result of a terrorist bomb. Reagan said that he would never deal with terrorists and pay international blackmail!  Of course Iraq eventually fought a protracted war against Iran in the early 1980's and was the beneficiary of vital American technical and military assistance and encouragement. In other words throughout the Reagan years we were playing both ends against the middle with Iran, who Reagan brokered a deal to get the hostages out that lead to his election and with Iraq and their merry bunch of Baathists who were threatening all of its neighbors. So what happened after Col. North identified Osama Bin Laden in 1987? We had six more years of GOP rule where we had the USS Vincennes shoot down an Iranian plane with 290 aboard, and Pan Am 103 sabotaged over Lockerbie, Scotland. When finally Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the then President Bush built a coalition to oppose Iraq and then succeeded with an invasion in 1991, what did we accomplish with that victory? Practically nothing. In fact, Bush with a 95% popularity in 1991, eventually squandered our good will with the coalition, was seen as a supporter of oligarchic royalists in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and was defeated by a small border state governor, Bill Clinton. Did he do anything about supporting the 14 Iraqi provinces that revolted against Sadaam Hussein? No! Did he put pressure on Syria to withdraw from the Bekka Valley and disconnect themselves from supporting Hezbollah? No!  Did he put pressure on Jordan for supporting Iraq? No! Did he put pressure on Yasir Arafat for his support of Sadaam Hussein? No! So in other words, with North's warnings aside, with a large coalition in place and on the verge of destroying the Bathist regime in Iraq, the potential of calling for reforms in Saudi Arabia, the opportunity to force Syria out of Lebanon, and the opportunity to force a separate peace in the West Bank, Bush failed. What resulted? The first Intifada started in 1987 and its success led to the Oslo Accords and laid the groundwork for the second Intifada that is probably still going on.

At least Clinton made a great and noble effort to bring about a formula for peace in the Middle East with the Oslo Accords, which Arafat signed and, by his own admission, really never understood or, as he said, even read the text. In fact when he understood its consequences, he more or less rejected it. By the time Clinton left office in 2000 he had hammered out a pretty decent deal called the Barak Plan. But Arafat, who was always insincere, understood that he could not sign onto the Barak Plan, because it may have meant peace. Peace would have never worked for him. But of course in Afghanistan, where the Taliban succeeded in coming to power in 1992 after 14 years of civil rebellion against the Soviets, these fundamentalist Islamics were armed to the teeth with American weaponry. They were the heirs to the Mujahadeen, and in that fertile ground Osama Bin Laden was able to construct his camps, train his forces and to plan his attacks on the west. In 1998 a cruise missile strike was directed towards his camps, but any other efforts against him were always derided by Congress as an effort by Clinton to extricate himself from his own personal problems. But, meanwhile it was 14 years between North's mention of Bin Laden and the tragedy of 9/11. We had terrorist activity throughout those years and never was there any real mention of his name. In fact the present 9/11 commission has heard dramatic testimony from many sources that the Clinton administration was up to its neck in the fight against Bin Laden, but the incoming Bush people did not really focus on that subject until 9/11. Richard Clarke stated that fact in testimony and in his book and those accusations were not effectively challenged and or countered by Bush supporters.

Of course there are always great ironies in history and we know hindsight is always 20/20. In October of 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous and prescient Quarantine Speech in Chicago that called for economic sanctions to isolate and quarantine militaristic nations to counter global aggression. Of course, after being lambasted in 400 editorial pages as a warmonger and a foreign adventurer, and being faced with calls for his impeachment, FDR backed off! In less than two years, Germany attacked and invaded Poland precipitating WWII. Thankfully FDR started his large-scale re-armament program without concern for the public's shortsighted stupidity. Also, though little known today, the last Gallup Poll of November, 1941 asked the American public would it fight to save Britain from collapse? Over 90% of the American public was against military intervention to save Britain! What would have our chances had been with a nazi conquered Britain? 

My sense, as a student of history, and a pretty keen observer of every day events, is that President Clinton was never given much room to operate from his right-wing GOP foes and opponents. Right from the start he was hated, vilified and hamstrung regarding bi-partisanship. His accomplishments in Northern Ireland, Cuba, Haiti, Bosnia and other areas were never appreciated or applauded by the GOP or the mainstream media. He made a great effort in the Middle East and was thwarted by Arafat in the end. He continued to contain Sadaam Hussein with eight years of over flights and aggressive counter measures from the air. Meanwhile, in retrospect, if Mohammed Atta was not released from custody, there would have been another recruit. Saudi Arabia is full of them!

Richard J. Garfunkel

PS: The remarks attributed to Col. North were never said. The report was false, and it was another terrorist and Al Gore was not the Senator who had asked the question!