Why did congressional Republicans oppose the following in 1998 (Details)?

Question

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 20, 1998
ADDRESS TO THE NATION BY THE PRESIDENT

The Oval Office
5:32 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Today I ordered our Armed Forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan because of the imminent threat they presented to our national security.
I want to speak with you about the objective of this action and why it was necessary. Our target was terror. Our mission was clear -- to strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden, perhaps the preeminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today.

http://clinton6.nara.gov/1998/08/1998-08-20-president-address-to-the-nation.html

……President Bill Clinton was embroiled in a sex scandal arising from his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Over the course of 1998 and early 1999, as the scandal dominated American politics, the US engaged in three military operations:

Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, charged that the former operation was an attempt to distract attention from the Lewinsky scandal…….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog

Answer 1

Because they were so obsessed with trying to impeach him that they were blind to the chance to deal with Osama when the organization was still fragile.

History will not be kind to the Bush administration, that is clear. History will also not be kind to the Republican party of the 1990's....they were just small minded, evil hypocrites.

Answer 2

Measures taken by the Clinton administration to thwart international terrorism and bin Laden's network were historic, unprecedented and, sadly, not followed up on.

The Clinton administration poured more than a billion dollars into counterterrorism activities across the entire spectrum of the intelligence community, into the protection of critical infrastructure, into massive federal stockpiling of antidotes and vaccines to prepare for a possible bioterror attack, into a reorganization of the intelligence community itself. Within the National Security Council, "threat meetings" were held three times a week to assess looming conspiracies. His National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, prepared a voluminous dossier on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, actively tracking them across the planet. Clinton raised the issue of terrorism in virtually every important speech he gave in the last three years of his tenure.

Clinton's dire public warnings about the threat posed by terrorism, and the actions taken to thwart it, went completely unreported by the media, which was far more concerned with stained dresses and baseless Drudge Report rumors. When the administration did act militarily against bin Laden and his terrorist network, the actions were dismissed by partisans within the media and Congress as scandalous "wag the dog" tactics.

In Congress, Clinton was thwarted by the reactionary conservative majority in virtually every attempt he made to pass legislation that would attack al-Qaeda and terrorism. His 1996 omnibus terror bill, which included many of the anti-terror measures we now take for granted after September 11, was withered almost to the point of uselessness by attacks from the right; Senators Jesse Helms and Trent Lott were openly dismissive of the threats Clinton spoke of.

Answer 3

Miss Kitty...followed through???!!!???

Bush has declared OBL as "marginalized"!!

The mass murderer of Sept 11 was declared "marginalized" by President Bush, and he hasn't pursued him since!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/03/14/MN233349.DTL

That's not following through!

Miss Kitty--I'm sure about that, because Osama bin Laden is not sitting in an American prison awaiting execution. He's still running free somewhere. He committed the greatest mass murder on American soil, and he's still running loose. Bush just let a killer run free. I wouldn't accept that from a local sheriff--the fact that the president let him run loose is unacceptable.

Answer 4

Clinton did accomplish one thing in his terms of office. He was very successful in the war on drugs. He totally destroyed the aspirin factory. But he got confused, he was supposed to go after the poppy fields. I guess he and his friends liked heroin better than aspirin.

Answer 5

What the hell good did striking out like that do us??? Clinton had no balls, Bush merely followed through with his..

Bearcat- you sure about that? You got an inside job or something. lol!

Answer 6

cmdrbdn - no that was when we narrowly missed actually taking out Osam bin Laden - you know the guy who attacked us but we stopped looking for in 2002.

Answer 7

Did ya notice, Republicans get congressional approval before they attack anyone.

Democrats, just go ahead and illegally attack them, without congressional approval.

Answer 8

Did OBL have a headache that day. Clinton wanted to cut off his migraine pill supply.

Answer 9

Some that is where the Democrats learned the term "imminent threat". Yet two years later it was not a threat. Why is that?

Answer 10

Your source doesn't mention any republican opposition.