5/9/07 – General Wesley Clark on The O’Reilly Factor May 11, 2007
Posted by jenmarie in civil liberties, media appearances.comments closed
General Wesley Clark on The O’Reilly Factor
May 9, 2007
transcript by Reg NYC
(plays VoteVets ad)
Bill O’Reilly: Now that ad was paid for by VoteVets.org, which says it’s non-partisan, but a study of its PAC shows 93% of VoteVets donations go to Democrats. With us now Fox News military analyst General Wesley Clark, who is on the board of advisors of VoteVets.org . You know, I understand the dissent, and the General, certainly a patriot, has a right to say whatever he wants. I wouldn’t have done it. You got guys over there in bad situations right now. Congress is debating what to do about the situation. I wouldn’t have piled on like the General did. Am I wrong?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Bill, I think you’re wrong. I, I think-
Bill O’Reilly: You would’ve piled on?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Absolutely.
Bill O’Reilly: Yeah, piled on-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Look, this policy has been a mistake. We should never have invaded Iraq, but the American people supported it. And guys like John Batiste, who did a great job in the United States Army. He was a fine Division Commander. He was there on the ground. He saw it. He tried to make it work, and then he realized in perspective that the problem is not the troops. The problem is the policy and the strategy.
Bill O’Reilly: Right. But the problem is the troops now. Put yourself in a Company Commander’s shoes, because they watch Fox News. They’re watching us right now. And you see this, and your guys, you’re trying to keep your guys’ morale up, and you’re trying to get your guys to perform in very, very difficult circumstances, and this stuff comes on. I don’t think this is right. I, I really feel it’s wrong. You got to look out for the guys first. I don’t think Batiste is looking out for the guys. I think he’s looking out for politics.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don’t think so. I think the most important thing John Batiste can do to look out for the troops is to try to get them a strategy and policies that work and make their sacrifice meaningful.
Bill O’Reilly: But that’s already in play. If it wasn’t in play-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It’s not in play.
Bill O’Reilly: Sure it is. Congress is debating it-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It’s not in play.
Bill O’Reilly: -right now. What do you think they’re doing?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think there’s a big debate going on, and I think John Batiste’s voice is very welcome in that debate. He’s been there. He’s seen it, and-
Bill O’Reilly: Alright.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: He’s a very credible source.
Bill O’Reilly: It’s a legitimate point. I’m not going to condemn the General. He’s, he’s a patriot and braver than I am, but I would not have done it. Makes me queasy.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That’s his sense of responsibility.
Clark says new U.S. view needed May 9, 2007
Posted by jenmarie in defense, military, national goals, national security, speech.comments closed
Former NATO chief tells Union students military might alone not enough
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
SCHENECTADY — – Military force alone cannot win in Iraq or against terrorism. America also needs a new foreign policy based on values like diplomacy if it is to succeed in the 21st century.
That was the message from retired four-star Gen. Wesley Clark to Union College students on Tuesday.
Clark, who served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander and led missions in Kosovo and Bosnia during the 1990s, spoke for about an hour in the school’s Memorial Chapel.
The U.S. has lost legitimacy in the world under the Bush Administration, and needs to restore it through traditional American ideals if it is to conquer al-Qaida and other global terror cells, said Clark, a centrist Democrat who hasn’t ruled out another presidential run in 2008.
Toward that end, Clark recommended America move past its fear from the 9/11 attacks and talk without condition to every nation in the Middle East; renounce permanent American bases in Iraq; fully comply with all standards of the Geneva Convention; and do not torture detainees.
“We will never succeed in protecting this country if we become what they are,” Clark told an audience of about 900.
