RAPID FIRE - Silver Bullets

Read for yourself the brilliant Op-Ed written by Wes Clark in advance of President Bush's announcement on escalating this war. That's what leaders do; they lead and act--as opposed to RE-acting after the fact to the Bush Surge conference!

Unfortunate, but it takes a real life General to let the nation know what we really need to do in reference to this war.....and to give Chickenhawks some "food for thought"!

(edited to add a plug for anyone reading this to sign the General's Petition addressed to George Bush that I'm calling "The Surge Protector Manifesto" if you haven't already! )

Kudos to the General!

Clark's Op-Ed--

The odds are that this week President Bush will announce a "surge" of up to 20,000 additional U.S. troops into Iraq. Will this deliver a "win"? Probably not. But it will distract us from facing the deep-seated regional issues that must be resolved.

The administration views a troop surge of modest size as virtually the only remaining action in Iraq that would be a visible signal of determination. More economic assistance is likely to be touted, but absent a change in the pattern of violence, infrastructure enhancement simply isn't practical.

Yes, several additional brigades in Baghdad would allow for more roadblocks, patrols and neighborhood-clearing operations. Some initial successes would be evident. But how significant would this be? We've never had enough troops in Iraq. In Kosovo, we had 40,000 troops for a population of 2 million. That ratio would call for at least 500,000 troops in Iraq; adding 20,000 now seems too little, too late.

More!

Netroot Buzz of various bloggers on Clark's "in your face" Op-Ed are numerous!
Arkansas Politics Blog
Z Poliblog
Talking Points Memo
Daily Background
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
EdCone.com
Too Sense
Human Voices
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Cab Drollery
The Political Chase
Vision for America
The Poor Man Institute
news hog
A Wes Clark Democrat
West Virginia Blue
Opinionator on Drudge Retort
Evergreen Politics 1/8/07
Hit & Run on Reason Magazine
A Left Turn for Clark

Right Wing blog listed for "balance":
Jay Reding (UK)

General Clark seems to feel mighty strongly that Bush's Iraq War is about to get messier than it already is; if that's possible. Clark terms Bush's "New Plan" as "Stay the Course Some More". He was all over the place the day of Bush's speech in an attempt to STOP THE MADNESS!

George Bush sure took a long time as the "Decider" to come up with this totally predictable and absolutely not new "Deja Vu"! How much are we paying him and his "advisors" to come up with "stuff" again? Cause I want my money back!!

Well, here's where the "Out of the Box" thinking General was, and what he had to say--

On Washington Post Radio - Listen to the clip or read the transcript

"If we believe that we can take each of these governments, diverse as the peoples are, and sweep away what's there and install democracy, then I think it's a, it's a, it's a fantasy. It- Democracy emerges from a society. It's not imposed on it."

Great Quote and loved the way he put the Bush Iraq plan in words; a fantasy!

In addition, Wes appeared on the Fox O'Reilly Show; the Factor. Once in studio, the General nearly had to shout to be heard as he schooled the pupil host, who apparently suffers from ADD.

But Bill was very admiring of Wes, and told the General his greatest wish--

"I know. Alright, but let's fast forward...you're the Commander in Chief. You're in charge. You're the President."

Sounds real good to me too, Bill! I can't wait for 2008 either!

Here's what NewsHound had to say about Wes Clark's appearance:
"Wesley Clark Sucks The Hot Air From Bill O'Reilly"

On another front that the General had opened a few days ago....
the "Stop the Surge" Petition to clearly articulate American's displeasure with the "Stay the Course some More" Bush Fantasy is doing well, but it could certainly do even better. Sign it, if you haven't already! It activates an email in your name to the White House, and you will even get a "response"!

Meanwhile the General attacked from the rear left flank......
Clark was instrumental at a press conference with the Congressional Democratic Leadership. Read about that here

And to make sure that his voice is heard.....
He'll be doing a couple more radio interviews tomorrow, so heads up!
1/11/07 - Wes Clark on Air America Thursday, 1/11 @ 8:00 PM EST/7:00 PM CST
1/11/07 - Wes Clark on Washington Post Radio Thursday, 1/11 @ 8:00 AM EST/7:00 AM CST

Of course, in addition to all of this, Clark recently wrote that outstanding Op-Ed that I discussed a day or so ago - http://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/war_in_iraq_2007_to_current/

Keep on fighting General Clark! Me, I'm going nite-nite!

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

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"!

Wes Clark was "for" an Iraq resolution, it just happens that it wasn't the one passed in the Senate on October 10, 2002. Clark favored and pushed for the Levin Amendment, the only resolution offered that confined Bush to going to the United Nations to appeal to the U.N. the need for a possible use of force in Iraq. If the President couldn't get what he wanted from the United Nations, he was to return to the Congress prior to taking further action. In other words, the Levin Amendment was not a Carte Blanche to wage war. Instead it was a road map that pointed first to the U.N., and if unable to persuade them, Bush was to come back for a second authorization from Congress to use unilateral force.

The Levin Amendment was the Resolution that would have dramatically slowed our march into an elective war that we didn't need to fight aka, the Biggest Strategic Blunder in American History.

Sen. Chafee, the Rhode Island Senator, the lone Republican to have voted against the Lieberman IWR , and who was defeated in his 2006 re-election bid wrote a scathing Op-Ed in the NYT recently asking why Senators who were "sorry" about their "mistaken" vote hadn't bothered to vote for the Levin Amendment if they only "wanted" to give Bush the authority to work through the U.N.?

Just check out what EPIC was stating just a day before the 2002 Iraq War Resolution vote!