General Wesley Clark on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, 7.06.07
Keith Olbermann: That plan that has been, been put forth by General Odom, would the main obstacle to that plan seem to be lawmakers in Congress having the guts to execute it?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I, I think the country’s not quite there yet on the impeachment issue, but I do think that it’s important to get those troops out of Iraq. It’s time for the United States to begin redeploying. We’ve given it four long years. The politics has never come together. This administration won’t do the diplomacy in the region. And it’s left our men and women in uniform out there exposed. Bill Odom’s a strategist. He’s thinking of it strategically, and he says you’re in a situation where you’re only losing more with each passing day…we’ve never had, enough troops on the ground to really do the kind of peacekeeping mission that was required. But even worse than that is the strategic failure, Keith. You know, soldiers expect their leaders to do the hard work of diplomacy and to use the military only as a last resort, because when you use the military, it’s final, people die. The fate of nations hangs on it. It’s much better for the diplomats to work it all out first if they can. Well, this administration didn’t give the diplomacy a real chance to work before the war, and now in dealing with Iran and Syria, it simply refusing to do the diplomacy that’s required. Our men and women, most of all, need the support of good leadership, courageous leadership, in the While House, and they don’t have it.
