The Glenn Greenwald article that Jonah cites quotes a story I wrote in December 2001 (which was re-posted on NRO recently). Greenwald’s quote is accurate as far as it goes, but he leaves off the two final sentences of the paragraph in question, which I think are important:

Instead of striking a strong blow against terrorism, the [1998 cruise-missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan] set off a howling debate about Clinton’s motives. The president ordered the action three days after appearing before the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair, and Clinton’s critics accused him of using military action to change the subject from the sex-and-perjury scandal — the so-called “wag the dog” strategy. Some of Clinton’s allies, suspecting the same thing, remained silent. Even some of those who, after briefings by administration officials, publicly defended the strikes privately questioned Clinton’s decision.

In those last two sentences, I meant to point out that it was possible for Republican and Democratic lawmakers both to believe Clinton acted in part for self-interested motives and to support the action. Hitting bin Laden’s camp in Afghanistan was a good thing — we should have done more of it, as Richard Clarke urged on many occasions. Believing that Clinton had mixed motives did not necessarily make people oppose the action itself.

And thinking back to that time, it was almost impossible not to wonder about Clinton’s motives. I certainly did. He hit Afghanistan at the most intense moment of the Lewinsky investigation, flying back to Washington from the world’s grimmest vacation with his wife, begun immediately after testifying before Starr’s grand jury, and then he hit Iraq on the eve of his impeachment. (Several of the quotes Greenwald lists referred to the Iraq strike, not the Afghanistan strike.) Add to that the fact that the movie “Wag the Dog” was fresh in everyone’s minds, and I do not believe you will find a single person in Washington outside the National Security Council — and although I cannot give you names, I believe that includes a number of Democrats, and not just the media figures Jonah mentioned — who didn’t privately question Clinton’s motives. Okay, perhaps a few, but not many.