General Clark on the Daily Show

[SSG Rock]

I was listening to a talk radio show this morning on the way in to work and the host brought up the topic of General Clark's comments about our troops roughing up women and children in Iraq. I haven't found a transcript yet, but if someone finds them please post.

I can tell you that I just lost the last small measure of respect I had for Clark. He evidently wants to be a cabinet member in Clinton's administration so bad he is willing to turn his back on the very institution that made his popularity possible.

Disgusting, just disgusting. He must have no shame at all. These are certainly not the kinds of things he was saying when he was on active duty. I remember him giving a speech at CGSC around 1999/2000 and he criticized the Bill Clinton's handling of the Balkans so much that he had the student body in stitches.

I guess he's changed his mind.

[Steve Blair]

Naw...just being a good general. Find the prevailing political current and ride it for all its worth....

[Jedburgh]

No transcript, but here's the vid:

Wesley Clark on the Daily Show

(You have to sit through the Starbucks commercial first, then the interview)

[goesh]

I'm not going to listen to the pretty boy and his political pandering - I've seen enough of him on prior occasions - he doesn't have the balls below the stars in this former EM's opinion.

[Van]

I'm so disappointed that he's not running for president.

It would be a perfect chance to drag his conduct as SACEUR out into the daylight. By his own admission (in "Waging Modern War") he and Javier Solana ramroded the U.S. into Kosovo without any effort to understand the Serb perspective of the conflict, and without any real thought to whether or not the U.S. had any interests there. We won't even go into his reputation among Army leaders. He comes across in his writting and interviews as a self-serving careerist, shameless self-promoter, populist, and opportunist.

I look at a guy like that and all I can think is that a biography of Gaius Marius should be required reading before receiving a commission in the military forces of a democracy.

[Rank amateur]

Seems to me that since the first Gulf War we only have two types of military leaders: those that admit they ramrodded the country into a war without considering the other side or US interests and those who refuse to admit it.

I can also say, from experience, that if you insist on considering the other sides interests, you're highly likely to be perceived as dangerously naive.