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Why Is Bush Perpetuating Clinton Policies? |
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May 21, 2003
Why is President George W. Bush continuing policies that were
initiated by Bill Clinton? The voters elected Bush to change obnoxious
Clinton policies, and they don't understand why Bush is keeping the
following seven in force.
- One example is the Clinton Administration's abolition of the
Army's "Risk Rule," which had exempted women in support units from
areas that involve "inherent risk of capture." That policy change,
ordered by the Clinton feminists, is the reason why a single mother of
two very young children was killed in the Iraq war and another single
mother of a two-year-old was taken as a POW.
When asked if this sending-moms-to-war policy might be changed,
Bush said at his news conference, "That's going to be up to the
generals." When Ari Fleischer fielded the follow-up questions, he
accused the reporter of "dealing with a hypothetical."
But Jessica, Lori and Shoshana are not hypotheticals. They, and
Shoshana's 2-year-old baby and Lori's three- and four-year-olds, are
all victims of a Clinton policy that Bush could change with a stroke of
his pen. But, according to Fleischer, this hasn't risen "to a higher
policy level."
What's a higher policy level than defending mothers of infants
against being killed or captured by the axis of evil? Keeping faith
with a shameful Clinton policy? Fear of the frightful feminists who
applaud our government giving Jessica, Lori and Shoshana their career
opportunities on the battlefield, and who assert that mothers are fully
deployable a few months after giving birth?
- Why doesn't Bush terminate other Clinton rules that impose the
feminist agenda on the military, such as coed basic training? The Army
Training Command admitted that coed basic training, which is gender-
normed to reduce female injuries, is "not efficient" and of no military
value.
That gave Bush a great chance to liberate the Army from Clinton's
foolish policy. Without presidential leadership, the generals are
certainly not going to act on their own.
- Nor, without a presidential decision, will the generals
overturn Clinton's convoluted "don't ask, don't tell" enforcement
regulations, which a federal Court of Appeals found to be inconsistent
with the 1993 law banning homosexuals from the military.
- The feminists in the Clinton Department of Education engaged
in aggressive enforcement of Title IX, using bureaucratically invented
words and rules that were not authorized by the statute. They used
Title IX to punish men by forcing colleges to abolish 171 wrestling
teams and hundreds of men's teams in gymnastics, swimming, golf and
even football.
President Bush appointed a commission to study the distortions of
Title IX, but he foolishly gave some of the commission seats to
feminists, and they used the media to grandstand for their side of the
controversy. Secretary of Education Rod Paige then announced he would
not implement any changes that were not unanimously recommended, so
Clinton's anti-male policies about college athletics will continue
under Bush.
- The Clinton Administration persuaded Congress to pass a ban on
semi-automatic assault rifles in 1994, and the ban will sunset next
year. Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to continue the ban and,
to the shock of the National Rifle Association, Bush announced that he
supports the Democrats' bill.
President Bush seems to have forgotten that his steadfast support
of Second Amendment rights was the main reason he carried the
Democratic states of Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia in November
2000. If he had lost any one of those, Al Gore would be president.
- Then there is the matter of Clinton sending U.S. troops to
Bosnia and its relation to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Treaty which Clinton's emissaries enthusiastically helped to write and
Clinton signed as one of his last official acts. Bush had a wonderful
opportunity to withdraw our troops from Bosnia when the ICC impudently
asserted jurisdiction over Americans even though Bush had "unsigned"
the ICC Treaty.
For a brief few days, Bush stood tall for the protection of
American service personnel by threatening to pull our troops out of
Bosnia unless the United Nations promised us immunity from the ICC.
But then he wobbled, accepting a lame compromise that left the U.S.
with the almost impossible task of trying to negotiate separate
immunity agreements with the 139 ICC countries, while at the same time
keeping our troops on duty in Bosnia as a fig leaf to cover the ethnic
hostility that is still as bitter and dangerous as ever.
- Another Clinton policy, Executive Order 13166, requires all
government agencies, and all entities receiving federal funds (such as
doctors and hospitals), to provide their services in any foreign
language demanded by a client. The perfect opportunity to rescind this
costly unfunded mandate was served up when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
two years ago that no one has a right to demand government services in
languages other than English.
But President Bush chose to continue Clinton's pandering to non-
English speaking minorities. Regrettably, Bush breathed new life into
Clinton's EO 13166 with all its follies and costs.
We're still hoping for a repudiation these Clinton policies.
Phyllis Schlafly is the author of "Feminist Fantasies" (Spence
Pub. Co., 2003)
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