RAPID FIRE - Silver Bullets

The Bosnia War occurred prior to the Kosovo War. U.S. Troups, via NATO were more involved in the latter than the former. The Bosnian Conflict(a civil war), were approximately 200,000 were killed, was ended via the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995. Holbrook and Wes Clark were instrumental in writing up the treaty.

Elizabeth Drew
New York Book Review
Clark has been open about the fact that he was hurt when his command was cut short. He offered clues about why he was treated so badly in his first book, Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat, published in 2001, and recollections of highly placed civilians in the Clinton administration confirm what he wrote. Clark displeased the defense secretary, Bill Cohen, and General Hugh Shelton, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by arguing strenuously that—contrary to Clinton's decision— the option of using ground troops in Kosovo should remain open. But the problem seems to have gone further back. Some top military leaders objected to the idea of the US military fighting a war for humanitarian reasons. (Clark had also favored military action against the genocide in Rwanda).

Clark's conduct of the Kosovo war, and his earlier participation as the US military negotiator in the meetings in Dayton following the war in Bosnia, earned him the admiration of several of the civilians he had worked with. Strobe Talbott, then the deputy secretary of state, reminded me recently that Clark is, after all, the only Supreme Allied Commander of NATO who actually had to fight a war, "and it ended in victory." Talbott told me that he found Clark to be "extraordinarily determined and able, and open to working with diplomats and civilians, US and foreign." Talbott pointed out that Clark, in commanding the Kosovo war, had had to deal daily with nineteen nations.

THE UNAPPRECIATED GENERAL

Clark's problem was that he was a great general but not always a perfect soldier--at least when it came to saluting and saying, "Yes, sir." In fact, when he got orders he didn't like, he said so and pushed to change them.

Here are a few of views of the Gen Clark/Gen Jackson hyperbole smear that originally stemmed from British Gen. Jackson’s comments that Clark wanted Jackson to start WWIII, a story which was originally reported by Gen. Clark in his book Waging Modern Wars. In addition, I include a few articles and their links on who General Michael Jackson is; quite a character who was later removed from his command of K-For control due to his insubordination.

And note the fact that Gen. Jackson’s insubordination encouraged President Putin invading Chechnya--

Haitian Man Tits Folklore!
Nitpicker 9/23/03
http://nitpicker.blogspot.com/2003/09/now-clarks-getting-it-from-left-i.html

Now Clark's getting it from the left

I never intended for this to be the site of the Wesley Clark Defense League, but these lies are pissing me off. I found this over at Fantastic Planet. It's from an article declaring Clark a "war criminal" by Mitchel Cohen, a green. http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/COH309A.html
That's terrible. But untrue.

I wonder if you can confirm or deny these allegations, and/or provide any additional information as to the documents you are reported to having acquired?

I thank you in advance for your kind consideration and attention.

The reply, from Ira Kurzban:

Dear Mr ,

Here is Mr Kurzban's reaction to your missive:

"This story is inaccurate. As you know, Wesley Clark was the person at the Pentagon who worked with the Government of Haiti on the military intervention preceding the President's return. The events in regard to the spraying of Haitians at the detention camps occurred at Krome, not at Guantanamo. It also occurred in 1981 not 1991 when the Haitians were at Guantanamo. I have no knowledge as to whether or not Clark ran the Guantanamo camp in 1991-94 (Nitpicker does, and he didn't. See aforementioned post). There were an number of horrible things that happened at the Guantanamo camp, but I never met Clark in connection with the camps. My only dealings with him were related to the military preparations for Aristide's return. Although he was not particularly friendly toward me, I found him to be bright, competent, enlightened and relatively easy to deal with."

Kind regards,
_____________________
John C. Kozyn, Consultant
Embassy of Haiti, Washington, D.C.

Kudos to Sadly, no! for his efforts.

And, while I'm at it, kudos also to Fantastic Planet for updating readers on this issue.

(I should mention that Sadly, no! sent me these e-mails saying that he thought Nitpicker was "really the best place to mention it." Again, I give him full credit for going the extra mile and checking with primary sources. I owe him a beer.)
posted by Terry at 12:05 PM

That's terrible. But untrue.
Honestly, I have no idea whether or not people were sprayed with chemicals in Guantanamo Bay, but I do know that Clark had not a damn thing to do with it. Look at his assignment history:

February 1980-June 1982: Commander, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor, 4th Infantry Division

July 1983-July 1984: Pentagon, in staff positions

August 1984-January 1986: Commander Operations Group, National Training Center

April 1986-March 1988: Commander, 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division

October 1989-October 1991: Commander, National Training Center

October 1991-August 1992: Pentagon

August 1992-April 1994: Commander, 1st Cavalry Division

April 1994-June 1996: Pentagon

June 1996-July 1997: CINC, US Southern Command

July 1997-2000: Supreme Allied Commander, NATO

There are a couple of gaps, but anyone who has actually served in the military can pretty much chalk them up to school time. Otherwise, no officer leaves command time off of his biography.

The problem here is that the only time Clark might have had any control over Guantanamo was from 1996-1997, when he was the Commander-in-Chief of SOUTHCOM, when he would have been stationed in Panama, far away from the base and its detention center. However, the Haitian refugees were long gone from Guantanamo by then, having been returned to Haiti by the end of 1994. There is no way that Clark had any effect on the alleged spraying of chemicals on refugees.

Think I'm wrong? Let's look at the source here, too. This article was run on a site that also says that the WTC towers were rigged to fall, suggests that Bob Graham and Porter Goss were connected to terrorism and that the CIA also had something to do with it. Very trustworthy.

A smear's a smear, people, whether it comes from the right or the left.
posted by Terry at 11:29 AM