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WESLEY CLARK: HOPE AGAINST HOPE

by JOHN CHUCKMAN Monday, Oct. 13, 2003 at 3:25 PM

THIS IS A PEACE CANDIDATE?



HOPE AGAINST HOPE

John Chuckman

I don't know how many times I've seen articles about Wesley Clark making a formidable opponent for George Bush. And I agree, he likely would, but so what?

I too am sick of the sound of Bush's voice. My radio dial is turned five words into any sound clip from this dangerous half-wit with a speech impediment, but what can be gained by replacing him with Clark?

For people in high positions, criticizing Bush now on Iraq is cheap talk. The idiotic, destructive war is done. Americans must live with its consequences and responsibilities no matter who is President. A decent alternative to Bush demands more than a few cheap words of criticism.

You might think the people writing these pieces see Clark as the embodiment of America's silly myths about citizen-soldiers, a kind of television-age Cincinnatus, who could defeat one of the most lamentable, wrong-headed President in American history.

Clark is not a citizen soldier. He is a professional, a lifetime paid killer. And he has done a good deal of killing. His record just in the very brief and relatively small conflict in Serbia is filled with dead non-combatants, from busloads of cremated civilians to people blown apart at a downtown television station. I understand his thinking in doing these things. I just totally disagree with it.

His record there is marked also with unbelievably poor judgment. The attack he ordered against a large Russian force was deranged. Thank God, a tough old British general dared to disobey the order. Even the bombing of the Chinese embassy was never satisfactorily explained. His documented fraternization with a vicious war criminal appalled many Europeans.

Generals of any kind rarely make good democratic leaders. They have lived their entire adult lives barking orders at folks trained to respond to barking, basic military training having great similarities to obedience school for dogs. The entire purpose of much of this training is to efface individual will and initiative.

That's why generals come from places like West Point. They are imbued with an ideology not intended for enlisted men, an ideology of officers' class, privilege, and authority.

Any military organization functions a great deal like a Soviet-style government. Direction comes from above, the Pentagon representing the quintessence of a centrally-planned economy. Waste and inefficiency come on a colossal scale. The waste goes largely unquestioned, because patriotism covers a many evils or, at any rate, intimidates a multitude of critics.

Civilian government simply does not work that way. There is more than a tinge of wishful thinking that people who bark orders can "make the trains run on time." It rarely turns out that way.

General-President Eisenhower, one of the better of a bad lot in American history, despite his personal charm and common-sense words, displayed many dangerous qualities. He worked with the appalling Dulles brothers, gentlemen whose thinking perhaps more closely resembled their Soviet counterparts than any democratic officials. The Bay of Pigs invasion was planned and organized under Eisenhower's stewardship. He took many risks with the Soviet Union, including the disastrous flight of a U-2, shot down just before an important summit. A number of democratically-elected governments were toppled by Eisenhower's government. Men like the Shah of Iran, torturer of countless thousands, were put into power over democratically elected officials. He kept the eerie, pathological Richard Nixon on the ticket when there was a sound excuse to drop him.

What most Americans recall about Eisenhower was that the nation grew in the postwar period, that he was affable, and that he had a cute nickname. Some recall his powerful words on the military-industrial complex, a fair warning that has been utterly ignored.

What do we know about Clark? He discovered what party he belonged to in a kind of epiphany at about sixty years of age. This suggests either retardation or lying, and I'm pretty sure he is a bright fellow. What a silly nonsense to believe this. Has he never voted in elections or contributed to a party? Of course, what has really happened is that only the Democrats offer Clark the opportunity to rise to Commander-in-Chief.

Clark senses Bush is increasingly vulnerable, and I believe he is right. Bush's vulnerability will increase as the staggering costs of invading and occupying Iraq become apparent and as months of melodramatic reports of ambushed Americans continue.

What will America get for its treasure and blood? A more stable Middle East? Look at the disastrous situation of the Palestinians today and say that with a straight face. Sharon has been supported through a relentless campaign of state-terror in the name of fighting terror. The very economy of Israel is at risk owing to its trying to behave like a world power on the pocket book of a moderate-size American state. And peace remains further away than at any time in recent memory, a new poll showing Israelis voicing despair, something the Palestinians have lived with for decades.

Consider the festering resentments of tens of thousands of Iraqis bitterly suffering for years under the impact of Bush's delusions. Crime and murder have risen to unprecedented levels in Iraq, increased by thousands of percent over what they were before Bush smashed public order. Many discontents, uncertainties, and internal rivalries have been released, and new enemies are in the making.

In Afghanistan, a costly mess remains. The figurehead president of the country, who has little reason to cause Bush grief, himself admits it will take years to gain stability. The production of opium poppies has exploded since the Taliban were pushed aside. Perhaps, American soldiers will come home as they did from Vietnam, addicted to drugs. That was, after all, one of the hidden costs of America's insane Vietnam crusade: farm boys from every corner of America returned home using drugs they never had heard of before.

On top of all this, the American economy is sour, and I don't mean just current GDP growth. Longer-term matters are at stake. Clinton's surpluses have been squandered, deficits in trade and expenditure have reached intimidating levels, and the economy is under the shadow of unknowably-vast obligations abroad, including everything from billions in bribes for foreign support in Iraq to open-ended contracts for associates of Bush and Cheney.

Bush officials are shown daily to be remarkably petty and corrupt. Imagine a neocon outing a CIA agent? It's the kind of act for which they would have nailed Clinton to a cross. But these nasty people's lust for vengeance and getting even drives them to do about anything.

The national-security apparatus they have put into place is horrible and dangerous and can only increasingly be seen to be so as it operates.

Yes, Bush will be vulnerable. So why waste the opportunity on Clark? There have to be better people.

Unfortunately, American national politics are about as agile as the Pentagon's bloated bulk. An American presidential campaign takes forever, often coming to resemble in cost and duration preparations for the landing at Normandy. The actual conditions at the time of the election can only be guessed at in such a lengthy process. It is one of the more foolish and costly parts of American politics, but it is the reality people must work under. So, a handsome general with no political baggage who criticizes the President about Iraq a little bit looks like a good bet.

And that is how America is run, and those who dream of something else only hope against hope.

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Wesley Clark: Stealth Republican

by more militarism is not the solution Monday, Oct. 13, 2003 at 11:38 PM

Only the Democrats would be stupid enough to consider running a Republican for President. Karl Rove would be proud.

---------------------------

http://www.politicsus.com/

JUST WHEN -- AND WHY -- DID CLARK BECOME A DEMOCRAT, ANYWAY?

Former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, who today announced his candidacy for President, joined the field of contenders competing for the Democratic nomination. But as recently as two years ago, he was addressing Republican dinners in his home state of Arkansas amid speculation about a possible future Clark run for office -- as a Republican.

Speaking on May 11, 2001, as the keynote speaker to the Pulaski County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, Clark said that American involvement abroad helps prevent war and spreads the ideals of the United States, according to an AP dispatch the following day.

Two weeks later, a report in U.S. News and World Report said Arkansas Republican politicos were "pondering the future of Wesley Clark:" "Insiders say Clark, who is a consultant for Stephens Group in Little Rock, is preparing a political run as a Republican. Less clear: what office he'd campaign for. At a recent Republican fund-raiser, he heralded Ronald Reagan's Cold War actions and George Bush's foreign policy. He also talked glowingly of current President Bush's national security team. Absent from the praise list -- his former boss, ex-Commander in Chief Bill Clinton."

Clark told CNN's Judy Woodruff earlier this month that he had decided to register as a Democrat. Left unsaid and unknown at this point is exactly when and why he decided to become a Democrat.

----------------------------------

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/23/wclark23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/23/ixworld.html

Clark 'chose Democrats after White House brush-off'

(Filed: 23/09/2003)

General Wesley Clark, who soared to the head of the field for the Democratic presidential nomination after his late entry to the race, found his momentum checked yesterday by a string of leaks aggressive even by Washington standards.

Senior Republicans revealed details of an extraordinary conversation in which Gen Clark, a decorated Vietnam veteran and former Nato supreme commander, complained that he had wanted to be part of the Republican Bush administration, but switched party after being given the brush-off by the White House.

The latest edition of Newsweek magazine reports that - after the Sept 11 attacks - Gen Clark thought he would be invited to join the Bush administration's national security team.

However, the proposal was reportedly squashed by the White House political chief, Karl Rove.

A furious Gen Clark apparently told two prominent Republicans: "I would have been a Republican, if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls."

Challenged by Newsweek, Gen Clark insisted his remarks were merely a "humorous tweak".

--------------------------

NICK ANDERSON, LA TIMES

October 2, 2003 - On Wednesday, two weeks after Clark formally joined the race for the White House, his campaign filed papers at the Capitol to withdraw his registration as a paid lobbyist for an information-services company based in Little Rock, Ark. Also Wednesday, a campaign spokeswoman acknowledged that Clark had not yet taken care of another step in his rapid transition to presidential candidate: registering as a Democrat at home in Pulaski County, Ark. "He fully intends to sign on the dotted line and fill out the paperwork," Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said, "but in the last 12 days he hasn't had time to do that."

A supervisor in the Pulaski County registrar's office, Sara Osborne, said Clark declined to state a party affiliation when he submitted his voter registration application in December 2001. But Osborne said Clark requested a Democratic ballot while voting in the state's May 2002 primary election - a common procedure for Democrats in a state with an open primary system.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-clark2oct02%2C1%2C1539898.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

--------------------------

CLARK PRAISED BUSH TEAM JUST TWO YEARS AGO

DRUDGE REPORT

Democratic presidential hopeful General Wesley Clark offered lavish praise for the Bush Administration and its key players in a speech to Republicans -- just two years ago. . . During extended remarks delivered at the Pulaski County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 11, 2001, General Clark declared: "And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice... people I know very well - our president George W. Bush. We need them there."

Clark praised Reagan for improving the military: "We were really helped when President Ronald Reagan came in. I remember non-commissioned officers who were going to retire and they re-enlisted because they believed in President Reagan."

Clark continued: "That's the kind of President Ronald Reagan was. He helped our country win the Cold War. He put it behind us in a way no one ever believed would be possible. He was truly a great American leader. And those of us in the Armed Forces loved him, respected him, and tremendously admired him for his great leadership."

Clark on President George Bush: "President George Bush had the courage and the vision... and we will always be grateful to President George Bush for that tremendous leadership and statesmanship."

http://drudgereport.com/clark.htm

--------------------------

Who Would Clark Bomb?

While Bush bombs Afghanistan and Iraq, and plans to move on to bombing Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. Clark, instead, would bomb Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan:

http://english.aljazeera.net/Articles/News/GlobalNews/US+general+attacks+Bush+war+plan.htm

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