Journal Gets It Right: Impeachment Trial Does Not Threaten U.S. Foreign Policy Interests — Its Defendant Does

(Washington, D.C.): Recent warnings have been issued by both foreign and domestic sources
that
placing President Clinton, the U.S. Commander- in-Chief, on trial in the Senate may threaten
American interests abroad and international security. An editorial in today’s Wall Street
Journal
(see the attached) rightly debunks such assertions as nonsense,
declaring that: “This President’s
record shows that he is far from indispensable. There is no overriding reason why
American law should not take its course in his case.”

The Center for Security Policy — which has issued thirty-six Decision
Briefs in its Clinton Legacy
Watch series over the past 2 years ¹ — heartily endorses this
conclusion in light of Mr. Clinton’s
mismanagement of the security policy portfolio during his six years in office. As the
Journal puts
it: “Any hard-eyed review of the Clinton record [reveals] an erosion of America’s
credibility in a world where by virtue of its military power and democratic traditions it is
expected to set a high standard of political leadership.”

The paper itemizes how the United States’ ties with its most important allies in Europe, the
Middle East and Asia are sorely fraying. One reason for the deterioration of these critical
relationships has been the Clinton Administration’s failure effectively to respond to those regimes
that pose a danger to this Nation’s interests and allies. In this connection, the Journal
observes:

“[President Clinton] has had a dismaying tendency to speak in a loud voice and then
shy away from effective use of the very big stick American military power
constitutes….His uncertain hand in thwarting bad guys has emboldened terrorists to
attack American outposts in Saudi Arabia, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and there are
growing fears of another such effort in the U.S. Yet, the only spending cuts Mr.
Clinton has made in his six years have come from defense and foreign policy budgets, a
total of some $100 billion. Military morale has suffered accordingly. Mr. Clinton’s
surprise New Year’s proposal of a defense spending increase brings to mind the old
saying, a day late and a dollar short.”

The Bottom Line

National security is an argument for promptly and fully addressing the questions that
have
arisen concerning Mr. Clinton’s conduct in office, not for truncating a Senate trial, to say
nothing of avoiding one altogether. International perceptions of America’s power and
credibility around the world can only be enhanced by such a demonstration of the extraordinary
stability and effectiveness of America’s constitutional form of government — a government of
laws, not of men.

¹See the latest in this series entitled Clinton Legacy
Watch #35: The Meltdown Of Diplomatic
‘Cults Of Personality’ (No. 98-D 201, 17
December 1998), Clinton Legacy Watch #34: A
Sovereign Palestinian State, A Weakened U.S.-Israeli Relationship, A Greater Danger of
War
(No. 98-D 199, 14 December 1998) and
Clinton Legacy Watch # 33: ‘See-No-Evil’ Security
Policy-making (No. 98-D 189, 23
November 1998).