To Sir With Love - A Wesley Clark Blog

New Video - Buchanan and Press interview, MSNBC 11/10/03

Video Link

After huggy feely forums in Boston and NH last week, it was back on the defensive for Gen. Clark when he spoke to Bill Press and Pat Buchanan from Phoenix on MSNBC, 11/10. Without a congressional staff to back him up and with a campaign staff "borrowed" from previous Clinton and Gore runs, WKC must be the loneliest candidate. He's still defending himself against attacks from his retired Army peers, his decision not to contest Iowa, and his relatively low polls in NH. Still the clarity of his opposition to ideologically driven foreign policy and his empathy for the troops shines through in what must have been an uncomfortable interview.

Some highlights (complete transcript here):

PRESS: I want to start asking you, General, about some of your former colleagues. In the last couple of weeks, three of our most distinguished and decorated generals, General Hugh Shelton first, then General Tommy Franks, and just Friday evening on CNBC, General Norman Schwarzkopf have said they could not support you for president of the United States. General Clark, if your fellow generals don’t trust you, why should the American people?

CLARK: Well, the American people should look at the record of what I’ve done. I had a very clear record in the United States armed forces for speaking up strongly to do what was right and as NATO commander I led a force that saved a million and a half Albanians from being ethnically cleansed. I did it against the resistance of the Serbs, the concerns of many in Europe and the resistance of a lot of the Pentagon brass. I think that’s leadership.

PRESS: But do you think-why would these generals be speaking out like this, General? They certainly know you. They’ve worked with you. Do you think they’re just jealous?

CLARK: Oh I don’t know why they have motives like that. I-Tommy Franks has never worked with me. I’ve never worked with him. We’ve shaken hands a couple of times. Norman Schwarzkopf is 10 years older than me. He hasn’t seen me in 12 years and he has no business passing on things he doesn’t know anything about. As for Hugh Shelton, I think he let a policy disagreement become personal. If he’s got something he wants to say, he should say it directly. But when you make general charges like he’s made, I don’t think that has any relevance.

. . . PRESS: To this date, General Clark, President Bush has not attended the funeral of one American killed in Iraq. As a former commanding general yourself, do you think that’s a mistake?

CLARK: Well, I don’t know whether you call it a mistake or not. He’s never been in battle. He’s never stood at the gravesides with people who have mourned their families and maybe he just doesn’t understand. I ... have seen that and I’ll tell you that when you lead and people sacrifice, you owe a lot more than just some words in a canned speech and this country owes a lot to its veterans and it owes them respect, honor, full support, and I think they in turn want a commander-in-chief who really understands them, not who uses them as some kind of pawn on a chess board.

BUCHANAN: General, you sound like the commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, has been derelict in his duty to honor the war dead as they should be. Is that correct?

CLARK: Well, I don’t use terms like that necessarily. I’ll just tell you, Pat, that as I look around and look at the homes and talk to some of the people who have lost over there, I’ve been through Walter Reed. I’ve talked with families who have lost loved ones over there. There’s a tremendous sense on their part that this country is not leading the way it should, that the sacrifices weren’t necessary and this commander-in-chief doesn’t really understand them, doesn’t really care about them, and is the captive of some hardliners who use troops as chess pieces in some geo-strategic game of check mate in the Middle East and it’s not that way. . . We really owe a deep gratitude to those families and our commander-in-chief and the other leadership need to see them face-to-face and show that.

BUCHANAN: General, when you talk about individuals who are geo-strategists using troops as pawns in a chess board in the Middle East, are you talking about the neoconservatives like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and Mr..

CLARK: Certainly.

BUCHANAN: . and some of the others, Mr. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) who have been talked of as basically the architects of this war?

CLARK: Certainly I’m talking about them. And there are probably others besides.