Some of you may remember the 1998 film Wag the Dog. In it, the President of the United States starts a fabricated war with Albania to distract from a domestic scandal.
Critics accused Bill Clinton of doing something similar in real life. Throughout the Lewinsky scandal, he ordered several military actions that some claimed were timed to divert public attention:
August 1998: Missile strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan came shortly after Clinton admitted to an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky.
December 1998: A four-day bombing campaign against Iraq began just as the House prepared to vote on his impeachment.
March 1999: The U.S. and NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia to halt the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians by Serbian forces under Slobodan Milošević.
Ironically (especially given what we may or may not now know about Donald Trump’s alleged lewd behavior with Bill Clinton), we may be watching a similar pattern unfold in 2025.