Foreign Policy:


Clinton deployed the U.S. military hesitantly several times under hostile circumstances. In 1993, U.S. troops, initially deployed to Somalia by the Bush administration, fought the Battle of Mogadishu which attempted to capture local warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The Clinton administration withdrew U.S. troops after suffering 19 deaths and 73 wounded at the hands of Somalia militiaman. These militia were later proved to have been trained by the Al Qaeda terrorist network. In 1994, Clinton sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, ending a period of intense violence. Aristide, who had been elected, had been ousted in a coup just seven months into his term in 1991. Aristide was a socialist who had often spoke against America. He continued with his anti-American rhetoric even after he was reinstated as the Haitian leader by American troops.(Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, 118-119, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company. ISBN 0895261405.) Clinton also committed troops twice in the former-Yugoslavia to stop ethnic violence, most notably in Kosovo. In addition, Clinton launched military strikes on Iraq several times to punish violations of UN sanctions and an attempt to have former President George H. W. Bush assassinated. Clinton did not intervene militarily to end the Rwandan genocide, a decision he later regarded as a "personal failure".

In 1994, Clinton negotiated and signed the Nuclear Accords with North Korea. The underlying concern was that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons technology under the guise of a nuclear power plant. In exchange for assistance with energy needs, North Korea agreed to abandon all ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons. However, by the mid 1990s defectors from North Korea, along with reports from the IAEA, indicated that North Korea was violating both the Nuclear Accords and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In December 2002, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and announced (privately in 2003 and publicly in 2005), that they possessed nuclear weapons.

In November, 1995, Clinton committed troops to the Balkans saying the mission would be “precisely defined with clear realistic goals” that could be achieved in a “definite period of time". Clinton assured Americans the mission would take about one year. In October 1996, shortly before Clinton's reelection, the Clinton Administration denied any change in the plans to withdraw troops in December, 1996. However, shortly after reelection, Clinton announced troops would stay longer. Troops ultimately stayed in Bosnia for nine years.[12]

On February 17 1998, Clinton gave a speech signaling the danger of rogue nations providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations with global reach. Clinton specifically pointed to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.[13] In August 1998 UN weapons inspectors left Iraq, leading to Operation Desert Fox in December.

During Clinton's tenure, Al-Qaeda began to emerge as a major terrorist threat. In 1993, Al Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center. In 1998, the group bombed the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In retaliation, Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach, which involved cruise missile strikes on terrorist camps in Kandahar, Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons facility in Khartoum, Sudan that was believed to be tied to bin Laden.[14] Clinton also gave orders authorizing the arrest or, if need be, assassination of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At the end of his term, in late 2000, the terrorists struck again with the USS Cole bombing. In 2004, Clinton said he regarded Al-Qaeda as the foremost threat to national security.[15] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the independent investigating commission was critical of Clinton for focusing more on diplomatic than military means to eliminate the bin Laden threat.[16]

Some critics argue that the American attacks in Kosovo, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, and Afghanistan violated international law.[17][18][19]

After his presidency, Clinton identified his proudest foreign policy accomplishments as mediating peace talks between Israel and the PLO, resulting in the Oslo Accords (1993). Subsequent events, including the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit and the commencement of the al-Aqsa Intifada, resulted in the Oslo Accords being widely discredited within Israel and in various Palestinian factions by 2004.

Clinton identified his major foreign policy failure as lack of response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Along with the United Nations, the Clinton administration initially did not publicly acknowledge that genocide was occurring. This delayed the mandatory response to the crisis and nearly one million people died.[20] A report from the Organization for African Unity singled out the United Nations, Belgium, France and United States for condemnation.[21] In 1998, Clinton went to Africa where he said he "did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror."[22] A report from the National Security Archive showed that Clinton Administration had collected considerable amounts of information during the crisis and it was passed up to policymakers.[22] In 2005, the former President apologized for his "personal failure" to stop the genocide.[23] However, the Clinton administration deployed 2,300 troops to Rwanda in an attempt to stop the genocide. The troops were withdrawn two months afterwards. (Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, 117, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company. ISBN 0895261405.)

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