I know that I’m a little behind the curve here, having been traveling, but I can’t let this article from Down Under pass without comment.

Speaking at the 2002 World Congress on the Peaceful Reunification of China and World Peace in Sydney, Mr Clinton said this “brief moment in history” when the US had pre-eminent military, economic and political power, would not last.

“This is just a period, a few decades this will last, and I think that all of us who are Americans should think about this and ask ourselves how do we wish this moment to be judged 50 years from now,” he said.

Well, Bill, you certainly did everything that you could to make it end sooner, rather than later.

But even assuming that he’s correct, just what is his point here? That because some other country might (he says that it’s foreordained, but it’s in actuality entirely up to us and our policies, and whether or not we elect any more Bill Clintons) become more economically, militarily, culturally powerful than us sometime in the future, that we should now grovel before those who despise and terrorize us?

The former president said he did not want to be critical of the current US Administration.

Of course, he didn’t want to let bin Laden get away, or take campaign donations from the PRC, or get hummers from Monica, either. The man just can’t help himself.

“I certainly have no illusions about the North Korean Government,” he said.

A statement that is contradicted by his very next sentence, vis:

“. . . But the fact is they ended their nuclear program in 94, in 98 they ended testing of long-range missiles and in 2000 we had the elements of an agreement with them to end their entire missile program.”

Look out whenever the guy who reinvented the word “is” says “the fact is.” The fact is Bill Clinton has no clue as to whether or not North Korea ended its nuclear program, its missile program, or any other program in those, or any years.

[Update at 5:04 PM PST]

Reader John Thacker points out this editorial in the Taipei Times commenting on this speech. The Taiwanese aren’t very happy with Mr. Clinton either. I didn’t address this point, but as John points out, the “World Congress on the Peaceful Reunification of China and World Peace” is an organization that accepts as a premise that Taiwan will be reunified with the mainland, and the “Peaceful” part is just a euphemism for “by whatever means necessary.” So Mr. Bill didn’t just sell us out for Chinese money, he’s continuing to do the same to Taiwan.