The "Distraction" In Bosnia

A reader called our attention to Christopher Hitchens commentary in Slate.com on Hillary's serial misstatements on Bosnia. Lying about dangers at the airport and environs, it would seem, is the least of it.

Hitchens points out that by the time of Hillary's visit in 1996, the war in Bosnia was "effectively over." In 1992, the Clinton administration had promised to oppose genocide in Bosnia. Bill had agreed with then Vice President Gore and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to a plan to bomb Serbian positions and arm Muslim forces so they could defend themselves. Yet, "in the event," Hitchens writes, "President Bill Clinton had not found it convenient to keep this promise." Hitchens quotes Sally Bedell Smith's For Love of Politics:

The key factor in Bill's policy reversal was Hillary, who was said to have "deep misgivings" and viewed the situation as "a Vietnam that would compromise health-care reform."

Hitchens concludes:

It's hardly necessary for me to point out that the United States did not receive national health care in return for its acquiescence in the murder of tens of thousands of European civilians.... Let the memory of the truth, and the exposure of the lie, at least make us resolve that no Clinton ever sees the inside of the White House again.