Following the August 7, 1998, African embassy bombings, “…the simultaneous cruise missile reprisals against Afghanistan and Khartoum that [President Bill] Clinton ordered thirteen days later, on August 20 [1998], and their unintended consequences coincided with the lowpoint of his presidency. The missiles struck with sophisticated military efficiency, but proved to be embarrassments for the administration. Osama survived the strikes, which were meant to kill him in an Afghan training camp. And the missiles launched against Sudan set off a furor when the administration was unwilling or unable to parry outraged Sudanese insistence that the target was an innocent pharmaceutical plant. …His critics disdainfully accused him of launching the missiles to steal the limelight from the Monica [Lewinsky] scandal.”
– Jonathan Randal, Osama, Pages 133-134