First watch this Segment of Wes Clark on Charlie Rose dated September 23, 2002.
Watch here or here
As you clearly see and hear, General Clark was not for going into Iraq at the time, and felt that the U.N. should be totally involved, in addition to NATO....and that our priorities should have been getting Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and working on strategies to fight a sensical war on terror utilizing our Allies as much as possible! In fact, the General clearly states towards the end of the Video, that a thorough Weapon Inspections program should be the goal, and it would most likely do the trick.
This video really tells the tale of the General's position on Iraq right prior to the IWR vote. He was definitely for the Levin Amendment to go the the UN and come back to congress for a vote....and since this was BEFORE the Resolutions existed, I'm sure that he was the one that provided the insight that led Sen. Levin to formulate the only Resolution that should have passed if congress would have been doing its job back in 2002.
Too bad that so many Senators and Representatives caved in and gave Pres. Bush a blank check instead!
If only we could turn back the hands of time, we could have avoided the biggest strategic blunder known as Iraq, and if not, we could have, at least, put Wesley Clark into the White House in 2004 as a minimum!
I'm telling ya, that there is too much common sense in what Clark states in this uncut segment for me to believe that we ended up doing exactly what he warned NOT to do. My heart is breaking for those dead civilians and soldiers who didn't have to be! For those who have suffered irreversable injuries; for all of the money that we have spent to date in Iraq for a cause that has only intensified the passion in our enemies and created thousands of new ones!
Senators Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd...... y'all were wrong! General Wesley Clark, you were right from the start. Those are the scores that count, and those are the scores that I am keeping.
John Edwards, in particular....if you would have just watched Charlie Rose on September 23, 2002, you'd have been a lot smarter for it, and maybe....just maybe, you woudn't have had to apologize for being "misled" in October of 2005. If you were not watching TV, you could have read Wesley Clark's OP-Ed published 2 days before the vote, or listened when he testified in front of congress. Not only were you lied to as you claim, but most importantly, you were simply just not paying attention to voices of reason. That is your burden to bear, and I will not reward you for not being more attentive and informed in respect to War and Peace. Leading from the rear is simply unacceptable.
and so I say
WES CLARK FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!
Because you never know when you will need more life saving common sense decisions made. We are living in a dangerous and unpredictable world, and the leader of the Free World must make sense from the getgo!
Wesley Clark was also right on Rwanda
The United States, however, wouldn't invade Rwanda, although Clark pushed his mentor, General John Shalikashvili, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, to push for an intervention. Shalikashvili declined after Clark told him twenty thousand troops would be required, and as Clark says now, "I watched as we stood by as eight hundred thousand people were hacked to death by machete."
http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030801_mfe_clark_4.html
(more on Wes Clark and Rwanda here).
and Kosovo
and Dafur before it became "fashionable" and politically correct,
(More on Clark's work on Darfur here).
On how we should have approached the War on Terror (Op-Ed from Clark three days after 9/11)
and now, Iran.
One has got to wonder why the Corporate Media Pundits who barely mention Wes Clark's name as a potential presidential candidate in '08 would prefer that he just "fade away"!
Also read my posts on on Clark's Domestic issues
and how well Clark did last time he ran!
Read the following for more on Wes Clark's stance on the Iraq War:
"Clark Says He Would Have Voted for War "- Dissecting Adam Nagourney's '03 NYT article
What Wes Clark said prior to The Iraq War
The Iraq War Resolution - Did Clark support "a" resolution or "the" resolution?
Mining and finding Prescient Gems-Clark's 2002 Iraq Congressional Testimony
Clark's 2002 Congressional Testimony - Youtube w/t Transcript
The Levin Amendment- The Resolution that Wes Clark was "For"!
