“We’ve got to re-look at our strategy, and Democrats need to be talking about this.”

General Wesley Clark on the Stephanie Miller Show, 6.26.07

Stephanie Miller: So General Clark, speaking of military strategy, what- this surge, you know, we even have now the first Republican Senator, Richard Lugar saying this, this is not working…..

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think, I think anything Richard Lugar says you have to listen to, but I’ve said all along we need to be talking about strategy and policy instead of troops an tactics. There’ve never been enough troops in Iraq. That’s a fact. The 30,000 we put in there is not enough to make a strategic difference. We’re focused on Baghdad. We may be making some headway in Baghdad, we may not be. We’ve driven a lot of the insurgents out of Baghdad and now we’re pursuing them, and there’s still car bombing going on in Baghdad. So, I don’t know of we’re making any military progress or not. Some of my friends tell me we are. But the point is that we’re not making any strategic progress. We don’t have the political agreements in place in Iraq. We don’t have Iran and Syria working to control and contain the violence in Iraq. So, therefore we’re no closer to a desirable end state of the U.S. commitment in Iraq.

“It’s causing us to lose the support and trust of the people in Afghanistan.”

General Wesley Clark on MSNBC News Live, 6.25.07

Contessa Brewer: So, according to the Associated Press, while Taliban militants killed 178 Afghan civilians this year, Western forces killed 203. In your opinion, is Karzai right? Are Western forces being careful enough not to target civilians?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, Karzai’s reflecting opinion in Afghanistan, as he must. And I think this is a very important public warning to the NATO Commanders that they must change the rules that they’re following in bringing in close air support. Of course we want to do everything to protect our troops there, but to win this war you can’t alienate the people of Afghanistan. I think Karzai and NATO are certainly on the same side in this. Obviously, our Commanders don’t want to kill innocent people. It does happen, and it’s a matter of tightening up on the rules to reduce its occurrence.

“You cannot occupy these countries…we wouldn’t want to be occupied in America, either.”

General Wesley Clark on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, 6.20.07

Keith Olbermann: Let me ask you…this is more of a philosophical question, an assessment question than a breaking news question, but given that we had to do that, that there was an attack looking for an al Qaeda high-level target on the loose in Afghanistan, not to mention bin Laden and it’s 5 ½ years after the attacks of 9/11, and the start of a war in Afghanistan, do you think we are devoting our resources as we should when it comes to fighting what the administration calls the war on terror?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Absolutely not. It’s…it’s been mistaken almost from the beginning. We went into Afghanistan as we should. We did not have a plan for success in Afghanistan to get al Qaeda. We didn’t want to put the American troops in because the administration was already planning on going after Iraq even though there was no connection established between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. So, we short-changed the operation in Afghanistan repeatedly. It was an economy of force mission, now we’re really committed in Iraq, the Taliban is coming back because basically, in that part of the world, there are forces and people that don’t want to see the Americans there. When you go in there, you have to have a plan for success, you have to get your success and you have to get out again. You cannot occupy these countries, it’s…we wouldn’t want to be occupied in America, either. And, so why we think we can stay there year after year and build friends, it’s backwards. You’ve got to have a plan for success at the outset, you’ve got to have enough resources to bring that success together and then you’ve got to turn it over to local people. That’s…we haven’t done that. In the meantime, al Qaeda’s using all our efforts as a recruiting incentive and so they’re training against us, they’re recruiting people against us…it’s, it’s trouble.

Transcript and Video

“…there’s still a strong group on the White House that’s pushing for that very action (against Iran).”

General Wesley Clark on The Ed Schultz Show, 6.18.07

Ed Schultz: General Petraeus says stabilizing Iraq could take as long as a decade. You agree with that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yes. I do. I think it could, and that’s only if we do the kind of diplomacy and political work that needs to be done and we can resolve the issue of Iran and the Palestinians and the Israelis. And all that is interconnected and basically bubbling along out of control.

Ed Schultz: Well, then this surge talk was really window dressing, General. Is that fair to say?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, the surge talk was about troops and tactics, and what we should’ve been talking about was strategy and policy.

“So I see this as one more step along a very dangerous path.”

General Wesley Clark on MSNBC News Live, 6.16.07

Alex Witt: So is it fair to say that we are now seeing the emergence of two separate Palestinian states? Is that how you read it?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That is how I read it. I think that Hamas has a…apparently a very very strong grip on Gaza and uh, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the United States, the west, the Saudis…no one quite knows how to crack this grip because there’s one and a quarter million people living in Gaza and so you can’t starve them out, you can’t blockade them out, you create a humanitarian crisis and the concern is that Gaza is going to become a hotbed of al Qaeda-like radicalism.

Alex Witt: Um, General, before we look ahead to the next step, I’m curious. How did we get to this point in the first place? Is this simply the inevitable result of those surprise elections when Hamas took power of Parliament or do you think this could have been avoided?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well I think it’s the consequence of a long-term struggle within the Islamic world and particularly within the Palestinian groups between a Yasser Arafat-led, corrupt, relatively more moderate organization that might have been prepared to concede the existence of Israel and harder-line, more Islamic organizations. So it’s the outcome of a long…years long, struggle going back before the early 90’s into the late 80’s. Um, it’s been financed by Iran. So this is not a rapid emergence. The elections were a consequence of this long struggle and this struggle is going to continue.

Joe Lieberman is at it again

Joe Lieberman is at it again

After wrongly supporting George W. Bush’s strategic blunder of attacking Iraq, and continuing to support Bush’s failed policies after the invasion, Senator Joe Lieberman made irresponsible comments this weekend regarding military action against Iran.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Lieberman said, “If [the Iranians] don’t play by the rules, we’ve got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they’re doing.”

Clark, Lieberman Spar Over Iran

Clark, Lieberman Spar Over Iran, Hartford Courant, 6.12.07

Joe Lieberman has triggered a war of words over Iran.

The senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the U.S. should be prepared to strike Iran if necessary. He repeated that view Monday on the Fox News Network, saying, “It’s time to understand we’re prepared to take military action” to “take out” the bases where Iranians are training extremists to kill U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark had heard enough.

“Sen. Lieberman’s saber rattling does nothing to help dissuade Iran from aiding Shia militias in Iraq, or trying to obtain nuclear capabilities,” said Clark, who in 2004 was one of Lieberman’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“In fact,” said Clark, “it’s highly irresponsible and counter-productive, and I would urge him to stop.”

(snip)

Clark took further aim at Lieberman: “Only someone who never wore the uniform or thought seriously about national security would make threats at this point.”

Full Article

“The United States doesn’t win counterinsurgency campaigns by killing insurgents”

Forging a New Vision for Foreign Policy and International Security, Center For American Progress, 6.12.07

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark told a group of Democrats meeting this week in Washington that the recent debate over the Iraq supplemental spending bill was “sadly misplaced.”

“We talked about troops and tactics when we should have been talking about strategy and policy,” said Clark, a former supreme allied commander of NATO and an unsuccessful competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

“..the US should be helping…to come up with the economic component that could undergird a lasting relationship between Israel and the Palestinians that’s mutually satisfactory.”

General wesley Clark at C.A.P.’s America in the World Conference. 6.12.07

Q: Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Aukuno Jefitinia (ph) from the EIR News Service…So my question to the panelists is that shouldn’t there be a reemphasis on the (oasis?) plan to make sure that in order to solve the problems in the Palestinian areas and in Israel, that there should be – for the United States to be seen as an unbiased peace broker, there has to be a comprehensive economic development plan for the Middle East in order to solve the economic problems in Palestine and also in Israel; that is, more water settlements, and also to make sure that in order to have a two-nation-state solution – because we all know the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict lies between Israel and Palestine. So that’s my question to the panel.

MS. FLOURNOY: Thank you very much. General Clark?

GEN. CLARK: Certainly, we need an economic development plan, and it’s never been more feasible than today, when the Middle East is awash with petrodollars and nations are looking for ways to invest. I see a lot of – I’m in the private sector on a probably 90 percent effort now, and I see an awful lot of infrastructure projects that are getting funded, including funding from Middle Eastern sources. So infrastructure is one
part of economic development. It’s not the only part.

But certainly, the United States should be helping and working with nations in the region who have these funds to come up with the economic component that could undergird a lasting relationship between Israel and the Palestinians that’s mutually satisfactory. It can’t be done unless America restores its moral authority.

Full Transcript

“We just have to have a different understanding of what’s going to happen in the region.”

General Wesley Clark on the Alan Colmes Radio (Fox News), 5.30.07

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: …..the truth was the Democrats didn’t say “there’s huge loopholes and even after we do this, these troops are going to be left there.’ Neither side did it. It got simplified in politics and this is the danger. The truth about Iraq is that we’re going to be there for a while, maybe not in the same strength we’re in now, I hope not. And hopefully, you know, we’ll get the fighting calmed down and I don’t think the military’s the solution – it’s just part of the solution, but…but, there’s no magic bullet solution and no matter who comes into office it’s going to be a huge problem because… here’s the problem, Alan – we’ve been talking about troops and tactics and we should have been talking as a nation about strategy and policies…Not the troops and the tactics.

(snip)

Alan Colmes: What can you do then? What could a President do? What could General Clark do if you were in that position?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I’d really be working the diplomacy with Iran and Syria. I’d be trying to change the vision of what people have in the region. And then I’d carry a trick bag into the Iranians and say “here’s my tricks – I can put more troops in, I can put “em right up on your border… I can, I can be worse to you or I can be better. We could even go so far as to recognize you. We can give you economic development assistance. We could even let Chevron Oil fix your whole energy sector so you’re not running out of energy.’ And, um… all that can happen. We just have to have a different understanding of what’s going to happen in the region. And I think if you change the nature of the dialogue, you won’t… you won’t succeed right away but I think it’s the only way you can begin to lay the conditions for success.