Counterpoint: Clark's testimony before Congress

We've heard the hand-picked quotes reported by RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, but the following quotes, taken from the very same testimony, are the ones that accurately reflect his overall message that day:

GEN. CLARK: When you're talking about American men and women going and facing the risk we've been talking about this afternoon, and if you're talking to the mothers and the loved ones of those who die in that operation, you want to be sure that you're using force and expending American blood and lives and treasure as the ultimate, last resort; not because of a sense of impatience with the arcane ways of international institutions or frustration from the domestic political processes of allies.

GEN. CLARK: I've been concerned that the attention on Iraq will distract us from what we're doing with respect to al Qaeda.

GEN. CLARK: And this is why I underscore again and again the importance of diplomacy first and going through the United Nations

GEN. CLARK: I would hope that before we would use force as authorized here, we would have exhausted all other means. If there's a way of incorporating that in the resolution, I think it makes the resolution stronger, not weaker.

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

The full text of Clark's testimony, which clearly refutes the RNC claims that his words were pro-war, can be found here:

http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/HearingsPreparedstatements/sasc-092302.htm

Can i assume these remarks won't register as many responses as the prior ones posted by the RNC and Smudge?

PERLE: (in regard to Clark’s testimony) No, I don't believe it and frankly I don't think he made a very convincing case in support of that cliche but it was one of many cliches. At the end of the day when you sought to elicit from him a reconciliation of the view that time is on our side with what he acknowledged to be our ignorance of how far along Saddam Hussein is, he had no explanation. He seems to be preoccupied, and I'm quoting now, with building legitimacy, with exhausting all diplomatic remedies as though we hadn't been through diplomacy for the last decade, and relegating the use of force to a last resort, to building the broadest possible coalition, in short a variety of very amorphous, ephemeral concerns alongside which there's a stark reality and that is that every day that goes by, Saddam Hussein is busy perfecting those weapons of mass destruction that he already has, improving their capabilities, improving the means with which to deliver them and readying himself for a future conflict. So I don't believe that time is on our side and I don't believe that this fuzzy notion that the most important thing is building legitimacy, as if we lack legitimacy now, after all the U.N. resolutions that he's in blatant violation of, I don't believe that that should be the decisive consideration. So I think General Clark simply doesn't want to see us use military force and he has thrown out as many reasons as he can develop to that but the bottom line is he just doesn't want to take action. He wants to wait."

Now, if Richard Perle thinks you are against invading Iraq, what else do you need?

Some have spun Clark's comments to say he agreed with Perle, but this part of that quote refutes it:

"So I think General Clark simply doesn't want to see us use military force and he has thrown out as many reasons as he can develop to that but the bottom line is he just doesn't want to take action. He wants to wait."

out to foil their grand PNAC plans. Bastard.

GEN. CLARK: Now, if we go in with a strong coalition; if we go in with a U.N. resolution behind us; if we go in with the full weight -- the fullest possible weight of international law and international opinion, then I think it can reinforce what we're doing against al Qaeda

GEN. CLARK: And so unless there's information that we're not being presented that says we have to take this action right now to go in and disrupt Saddam Hussein, we can't wait a week, we can't wait four weeks or whatever, then it seems to me that we should use the time available to build up our legitimacy. And that's why I'm advocating intrusive inspections.

On the Clark blog, karmick has a link to a 2002 video from NH Outlook which, she says, echoes the sentiments you are expressing. I can see the video but not hear b/c I gave my speakers to my brother (lol!). You might want to look at it though.

Link to karmick's blog: http://karmick.forclark.com/story/2004/1/18/233739/420

berated him relentlessly for it. One more reason to trust, believe and admire Wesley Clark.

doesn't like what you say....That's a VERY good thing!

:kick: