Nikola Drobac – 9/27/04

This page was last updated on September 27, 2004.

Stop lying to America; Nikola (Nick) Drobac; Beaver County Times; September 27, 2004.

I find it humorous that the title of a letter written by Mr. Drobac would admonish someone to “stop lying.” Read a few of Mr. Drobac’s other letters and you’ll know what I mean.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Monday, on the Christian Broadcast Network, Pastor John Hagee stated that terrorism began in 1993 during the Clinton administration. Hagee stated that Clinton failed to respond appropriately and as a result, terrorism continued to proliferate culminating into the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.”

[RWC] His record doesn’t deserve it, but let’s assume Mr. Drobac’s claim is true. Unfortunately, Mr. Drobac wants us to believe Hagee’s alleged claim represents the belief of Republicans in general. That’s wrong.

“The accusations were completely false.”

[RWC] It is true terrorism didn’t begin during the Clinton administration and he wasn’t the first to inadvertently send terrorists the wrong message.

· 1979: In Tehran, Islamists took hostage the American embassy and its staff for 444 days. President Jimmy Carter mounted a humiliating failure of a rescue attempt that resulted in helicopter crashes and eight dead brave soldiers.

· 1983: Muslim extremists bombed the American embassy in Beirut killing 63, 17 of whom were Americans. In response, President Reagan sent U.S. Marines.

· 1983: Muslim extremists bombed the Marine barracks in Beirut killing 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers. In an election year, President Reagan caved to Democrat demands and withdrew from Lebanon.

· 1988: Libyan agents blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270, 189 of whom were Americans. Neither British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher nor President Bush (41) retaliated.

Below is a probably incomplete list of terrorist actions against the United States during the Clinton administration.

· 1993: World Trade Center - six dead civilians

· 1993: U.S. peacekeepers in Somalia - 18 dead soldiers

· 1996: Khobar Towers military barracks in Saudi Arabia - 19 dead soldiers

· 1998: On February 23^rd, Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States.

· 1998: U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania - 224 dead African civilians

· 2000: USS Cole - 17 dead sailors

Consider a few other points.

· In 1994, with “help” from former President Jimmy Carter, President Clinton signed a treaty whose goal was to bribe North Korea not to pursue nuclear weapons. Again, we rewarded bad behavior. As we know, North Korea never honored the treaty and the problem was dumped in President Bush’s lap.

· In an attempt to get a Middle East peace agreement, President Clinton treated terrorist Yasser Arafat as he would a legitimate political leader. We sent a clear message that terrorism pays. As we know, Arafat never held up his end of the bargain, and probably never intended to. For the record, President Clinton was not alone. Sen. John Kerry referred to Arafat as a “statesman” in his 1997 book entitled The New War.

· During late 1999, President Clinton granted clemency to members of FALN, a Puerto Rican terrorist group. In 1975, FALN bombed a New York tavern, killing four and wounding 60.

“The aforementioned propaganda has been repeated over and over again on conservative talk show radio stations, television stations and in other right-wing periodicals.

[RWC] I haven’t seen any reputable “right wingers” claim terrorism began during the Clinton administration, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t some partisan wackos making the claim.

“Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president on Jan. 20, 1993. Thirty-seven days later (Feb. 26), terrorists exploded a bomb in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center.”

[RWC] What happened to the rallying cry of the anti-Bush crowd, “But it happened on his watch?” <g> Of course Clinton wasn’t responsible for the bombing; the terrorists were responsible.

“Compare that to the 9/11 attack when George W. Bush was in office for 234 days.”

[RWC] Anyone want to bet Mr. Drobac blames the Bush administration for 9/11 and will tell us Clinton was completely clean? Mr. Drobac didn’t mention President Bush kept most of the Clinton administration’s national security team, including the CIA, FBI, and counterterrorism directors. Why? Bush wanted to minimize transition lapses.

“Republicans conveniently fail to mention that there are terrorists associated with that first attack on the World Trade Center who are presently in American prisons today. One of those, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, otherwise known as ‘Sheik Omar’ or ‘The Blind Sheik,’ was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. Thank you, Mr. Clinton.

[RWC] Again I know of no mainstream Republicans who claim terrorists weren’t responsible for the 1993 bombing. That said, some Democrats appear to make this claim when they say there were no terrorist links to Iraq. Where do you think at least one of the 1993 WTC bombers, Abdul Rahman Yasin, wound up? The convicted chief conspirator of the WTC bombing, Ramzi Yousef, arrived using an Iraqi passport.

“In 1983, during the Reagan administration, terrorists killed 220 American Marines and 21 other Americans in Beirut, Lebanon. This attack was one of the first major terrorist attacks against the United States. Reagan failed to respond to the terror forcefully, setting the stage for more terrorist attacks in the future.

“There were other terrorist attacks against Americans during the Reagan and George H. W. Bush presidencies. Reagan and Bush 41 did nothing.”

[RWC] It is true President Reagan didn’t take on the Democrat-controlled Congress to retaliate for Beirut. I believe that was a mistake because it sent the wrong message to terrorists.

On the other hand, Reagan did retaliate against Libya in 1986 for the terrorist bombing of the German nightclub in which two American servicemen were killed.

It’s not accurate to say Bush #41 did nothing against terrorism. Saddam Hussein was a state terrorist and Bush #41 retaliated for Hussein’s Kuwait invasion. I agree more could have been done against terrorism in general.

“Hagee lied and he is misleading his followers. Hagee is what the Bible refers to as a false prophet. I wish he and other Republicans would stop lying to the American people.”

[RWC] As I noted above, I haven’t heard anyone claim terrorism started during the Clinton administration. Given the history of liberals, I would not be surprised if Mr. Drobac’s claim turned out to be manufactured. If it was not, Mr. Hagee was wrong.