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DISSIDENT VOICE
www.dissidentvoice.org
September 18, 2003

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The Awful Truth About General Wesley Clark
A Dissident Voice News Service Compilation
September 18, 2003
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/DVNS_Wesley-Clark.htm
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Editor's Note: I've long admired Michael Moore's film work and many of
his
writings, overlooking his often annoying tendency for self-puffery.
Outside
of his films, books and articles, Moore has spent a great deal of time
and
money working on issues kindred to progressives. That said, his recent
article/letter imploring General Wesley Clark to run for the presidency
on
the Democratic ticket reveals that Moore has gone plumb (temporarily I
hope) stupid
(http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?messageDate=2003-09-12). In

the PS to his most recent piece, Moore writes: "Thanks for the
astounding
response to the Wesley Clark letter (and for your kind comments to me).
Over 95% of the thousands of letters received favored the General
tossing
his helmet in the ring. All were passed on to his organization. More to
come on the road to removing Bush..."
(http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?messageDate=2003-09-15)

Clark announced yesterday that he is running for the presidency on the
Democratic ticket.

This is even lamer than folks of liberal, progressive, or left
persuasion
backing the non-liberal Howard Dean this early in the campaign, when
clearly there is a genuinely progressive alternative in the form of
Dennis
Kucinich (http://www.kucinich.us/). Kucinich is only a "long shot"
because
liberal and so-called progressive groups have made it a self-fulfilling
prophecy by reiterating this over and over, while throwing their time
and
resources into Dean. Given the positions Kucinich supports that Moore
would
presumably agree with (single-payer health care, universal
pre-kindergarten
care for all children, a just peace in the Middle East, scaling back the

military budget, repealing NAFTA and other investor rights treaties,
principled opposition to the war in Iraq, remove US troops from Iraq,
emphasis on alternative energy resources, scaling back corporate power,
etc.), I would think Moore would be putting a spotlight on and rallying
folks to support Kucinich. All of this shows what a pathetic state of
affairs the Left is in here in the US.

As a public service, here are links to a number of articles describing
the
real Wesley Clark, and it ain't pretty. He's a three-star general on
account of his commanding ability to kiss the asses of those above him,
probably his only skill when you consider what some of his military
colleagues have to say (see the CounterPunch articles), and the man is
clearly a pathological egomaniac. If any of you have seen his
appearances
in different settings (during NATO press conferences, giving testimony
to
Congress, etc.), one can't fail to be struck by the arrogance and
pomposity
of this twit, who appears on any scene like a pasha, accompanied by a
huge
entourage of underlings nervously setting the stage and dusting the
seats
for his genteel derriere in advance of his grand entrance. Can you
imagine
this man on the White House throne? It makes King George II look mighty

appealing by comparison.

If indeed Moore has received thousands of letters thanking him for his
article and endorsing Clark to run, then the squalid state of the
"opposition" here in America is worse than I imagined. I hope you folks
prove 'tis ain't so. Please spread this around, especially to folks you
know who think Clark is just peachy. If you agree with all of this, let
Michael Moore know what you think. I think this is important given the
huge
audience Moore has: mike@...

-- Sunil Sharma
DV Editor
Santa Rosa, CA

_______________________________________

1) Wesley Clark: The New Anti-War Candidate? Record Shows Clark Cheered
Iraq War as "Right Call"
A media advisory from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, September 16,
2003

The possibility that former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark might
enter
the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination has been the
subject of furious speculation in the media. But while recent coverage
of
Clark often claims that he opposed the war with Iraq, the various
opinions
he has expressed on the issue suggest the media's "anti-war" label is
inaccurate.. (http://www.fair.org/press-releases/clark-antiwar.html)

2) Anti-War Candidate? What Must Be Done to Complete a Great Victory
by Wesley Clark in the Times of London, April 10, 2003

Can anything be more moving than the joyous throngs swarming the streets
of
Baghdad? Memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the defeat of
Milosevic in Belgrade flood back. Statues and images of Saddam are
smashed
and defiled. Liberation is at hand. Liberation - the powerful balm that
justifies painful sacrifice, erases lingering doubt and reinforces bold
actions. Already the scent of victory is in the air. Yet a bit more work

and some careful reckoning need to be done before we take our triumph.
(http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0917-14.htm)

3) Wesley Clark for President? Another Con Job from the Neo-Cons
by Wayne Madsen in CounterPunch, September 18, 2003

Let it never be said the neo-conservatives are not persistent. That's
why
they must be rounded up by the FBI and charged with violating the
Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes. But let's save
that
issue for another time.

The latest trick of the neo-cons is running retired General Wesley Clark

for President as a Democrat. But not just any Democrat -- a "New
Democrat."
The same bunch that are pushing Joe Lieberman's candidacy are obviously
hedging on their bets and want to have Clark in the race as a potential
vice presidential candidate (to ensure their continued influence in a
future Democratic administration of Howard Dean, John Kerry, or Dick
Gephardt) or as a "go-to" candidate in the event that Lieberman stumbles

badly in the first few Democratic primaries next year..
(http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen09182003.html)

4) JUST WHEN -- AND WHY -- DID CLARK BECOME A DEMOCRAT, ANYWAY?
PoliticsUS.com (full text), September 18, 2003
http://www.politicsus.com/

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.

5) Confrontation over Pristina airport (From 2000, about how Clark
almost
ignited a war between the US and Russia during the Kosovo War), BBC,
March
9, 2000

But General Clark's plan was blocked by General Sir Mike Jackson,
K-For's
British commander. "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you,"
he
reportedly told General Clark during one heated exchange..
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/671495.stm)

6) Was Gen. Clark Also "Unprepared" for the Postwar?
by Zoltan Grossman, Common Dreams, September 10, 2003

In his apparent quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination,
General
Wesley Clark rightly criticizes President Bush for waging a
"pre-emptive"
invasion of Iraq, and in particular for being "unprepared" for the
post-invasion occupation of the country. Some Democrats are being drawn
to
the former NATO Supreme Commander as an authoritative voice against the
Iraq debacle, and a "pragmatic" alternative to the disastrous Bush
Presidency.

Yet these Democrats apparently have short memories. It was only four
years
ago that General Clark waged a war against Yugoslavia that had similarly

shaky motives and spiraling postwar consequences. Clark has whitewashed
the
1999 Kosovo intervention as a "humanitarian" campaign to rescue Kosovar
Albanians from Serbian "ethnic cleansing," even though it actually
helped
fuel the forced explusions. The General credits NATO bombing of Serbian
cities for bringing about the fall of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, even though Serbian democrats loudly objected that it
undermined
and delayed their ultimate victory. Clark claims that the postwar NATO
occupation brought "peace" to Kosovo, but he was clearly unprepared for
the
violent "ethnic cleansing" that took place on his watch, largely
facilitated by his decisions, under the noses of his troops.
(http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0910-07.htm)

7) Wesley Clark's 'High Noon' Moment
by Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation, September 12, 2003

Democrats believe that Clark, as a former military officer, could make
the
party more viable on foreign affairs than it's been since a general
named
George Marshall was containing Communism under the command of a
president
named Harry Truman. (That's the conventional wisdom, though the
staggering
cost of the badly bungled Iraqi occupation has diminished the Republican

advantage on defense no matter who runs against Bush.)

While media commentary on Clark's prospective candidacy has been almost
entirely favorable--even adulatory--it's worth looking back at a
forgotten
chapter in his military biography that occurred when Clark was Supreme
Allied Commander of NATO and Commander In Chief for the US European
Command. Call it Clark's "High Noon" showdown. It's an incident that
deserves scrutiny because Clark's claim to be an experienced leader in
national security matters is tied, in significant part, to his record in

the Balkans.. (http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=945)

8) Meet the Real Gen. Clark: A Vain, Pompous Brown-noser
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, June 1999

Anyone seeking to understand the bloody fiasco of the Serbian war need
hardly look further than the person of the beribboned Supreme Allied
Commander, General Wesley K. Clark. Politicians and journalists are
generally according him a respectful hearing as he discourses on the
"schedule" for the destruction of Serbia, tellingly embracing phrases
favored by military bureaucrats such as "systematic" and "methodical".
The
reaction from former army subordinates is very different. "The poster
child
for everything that is wrong with the GO (general officer) corps,"
exclaims
one colonel, who has had occasion to observe Clark in action, citing,
among
other examples, his command of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood
from
1992 to 1994.

While Clark's official Pentagon biography proclaims his triumph in
"transitioning the Division into a rapidly deployable force" this
officer
describes the "1st Horse Division" as "easily the worst division I have
ever seen in 25 years of doing this stuff." ..
(http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair09172003.html)

9) The Fire Last Time: Wesley Clark and Waco
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, June 1999

On February 28, 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
launched
its disastrous and lethal raid on the Branch Dividian compound outside
Waco, Texas. Even before the raid, members of the US Armed Forces, many
of
them in civilian dress, were around the compound. In the wake of the Feb
28
debacle Texas governor Anne Richards asked to consult with knowledgeable

military personnel. Her request went to the US Army base at Fort Hood,
where the commanding officer of the US Army's III corps referred her to
the
Cavalry Division of the III Corps, whose commander at the time was
Wesley
Clark. Subsequent congressional enquiry records that Richards met with
Wesley Clark's number two, the assistant division commander, who advised

her on military equipment that might be used in a subsequent raid.
Clark's
man, at Richard's request, also met with the head of the Texas National
Guard. . . .

Ultimately tanks from Fort Hood were used in the final catastrophic
assault
on the Branch Davidian compound on April 19. Certainly the Waco
onslaught
bears characteristics typical of Gen. Wesley Clark: the eagerness to
take
out the leader (viz., the Clark-ordered bombing of Milosevich's private
residence); the utter disregard for the lives of innocent men, women and

children; the arrogant miscalculations about the effects of force;
disregard for law, whether of the Posse Comitatus Act governing military

actions within the United States or, abroad, the purview of the
Nuremberg
laws on war crimes and attacks on civilians..
(http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09182003.html)

10) Don't Be Fooled Again: Gen. Wesley Clark, War Criminal
by Mitch Cohen, CounterPunch, September 17, 2003

Gen. Wesley Clark is a major war criminal. Please don't be fooled by the

current well-orchestrated push to nominate Clark as Democratic Party
nominee for president, at trap which Michael Moore has apparently fallen

into as well as a number of other well-meaning peace people.

Gen. Wesley Clark was in charge of refugee camps in the 1980s and 1990s
where Haitian refugees who were fleeing first Baby Doc Duvalier (and
later
the new regime installed by the US following the overthrowal of the
elected
Aristide government in the early 1990s), were packed, under appalling
conditions condemned by the Center for Constitutional Rights, among many

others. In the 1980s, many Haitian male refugees incarcerated at Krome
(in
Miami), and Fort Allen (in Puerto Rico) reported a strange condition
called
gyneacomastia, a situation in which they developed full female breasts..

(http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen09172003.html)

11) An Open Letter to Michael Moore: You Are Way Off Base About Wesley
Clark
by Terry Lodge, CounterPunch, September 17, 2003

I've long appreciated your work, your politics and your writings. And
precisely because of that, I'm surprised by and disappointed in your
solicitation of Wesley Clark's candidacy for the Democrat nomination for

President.

Wesley Clark is a war criminal. He commanded the U.S. forces and the
whole
NATO mission in the Kosovo war, which from the allies' perspective, was
a
stunning bombing campaign. Toward the end of the conflict, he very
nearly
touched off a major global confrontation when he ordered NATO forces to
attack an airfield where a Russian force had landed with the intention
of
injecting themselves on the side of the Serbs to halt the butchery. Had
Clark's order been followed, it would have touched off the most
dangerous
Russian-U.S military confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis in
1962..
(http://www.counterpunch.org/lodge09172003.html)

12) Citizen Clark? Or, Why Electing a Mass Murderer Is a Really Bad
Idea
by Nebojsa Malic, AntiWar.com, September 18, 2003

Wesley Clark, former US Army general and Supreme NATO Commander in
Europe,
announced Wednesday that he will run for President of the United States
in
2004 as a Democrat, joining nine other Democratic candidates vying for
the
opportunity to challenge George W. Bush. Incongruously, Clark supporters

and mainstream media seem to purport that he is running on an "antiwar"
ticket. Only a few, including the Christian Science Monitor, believe
that
Clark could outflank Bush in his belligerence.

It's as if everyone has forgotten Wesley Clark was the Bomber of
Belgrade,
the highest-ranking military official in a cabal that systematically
violated international law, the NATO Charter (and with it the US
Constitution, Article 6, Section 2) and committed the greatest crime
under
the Nuremburg principles: that against peace.

Even Michael Moore, the gut-punch filmmaker who challenged the NATO
attack
(after a fashion) in his Oscar-winning feature "Bowling for Columbine,"
recently gushed over Clark. What has possessed all these people to
believe
that the answer to George W. Bush's policy of Global Balkanization lies
in
a man whose hands are drenched in Balkans blood? ..
(http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m091803.html)

13) The Perfumed Prince and Other Political Tales
by John Chuckman, Dissident Voice, September 6, 2003

The Perfumed Prince declared himself a Democrat. Many Americans may not
recognize the nickname bestowed upon Wesley Clarke by British colleagues
as
he strutted around Serbia with his set of platinum-plated general's
stars
carefully repositioned each day to a freshly-starched and ironed
camouflage
cap, wafting a thick vapor trail of cologne. His lack of judgment
demonstrated in Serbia - including an order to clear out Russian forces
that British general, Sir Michael Jackson, had to ignore for fear of
starting World War III - should be enough to utterly disqualify him as a

candidate for President. But this is America, land of opportunity.

The former general scents, through the mists of his musky cologne, an
opportunity for service. Hell, we're at war, and any real general is
better
than a former male cheerleader from Andover who cross-dresses as a
combat
pilot. Dreams of being the hero on a white horse beckon. A fatal
attraction
in the American people to used-up generals is how the country managed to

elect some of its worst presidents - Grant, Jackson, and Garfield, for
example. (read more)

* Other Resources: The Progressive Review's Wesley Clark Archive
http://www.prorev.com/politics.htm#clark

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
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