Clark Says Strike would Stop Syria Chemical Arms.

[elleng]

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/clark-says-strike-would-stop-syria-chemical-arms-K_E2g3DjRb6WgiC8AoHUYw.html

[msongs]

1. so did Assad tell him this personally or is clark just making up stuff nt

[elleng]

2. Wes Clark doesn't make stuff up,

he's got much experience, and the best judgment of any public figure I can think of.

[BootinUp]

7. Scary smart :)

was always one of my favorite descriptions for Clark. In this interview he got to show it. Gets right to the heart of the matter, explains it perfectly.

[elleng]

9. Thanks for noting it, BootinUp,

and posting it.
:hi;

[delrem]

3. ouch.

I guess like a *lot* of people, Wes Clark (HRC's general on call) distinguishes truth according as if the R's are leading, or the D's. How else can one explain his current total obliviousness to the PNAC schedule that he personally made public?

[indie9197]

4. He also has a goal to make $40 million after retirement.

He is a lobbyist for an oil company among other things. Sorry, he has no credibility at this point. He was probably paid to provide this interview and say what he said.

[elleng]

5. B.S.

Your ignorance is showing.

[indie9197]

6. Sorry, he is just a lobbyist for crappy gas

http://www.edmunds.com/autoobserver-archive/2009/03/ethanol-lobbying-continues-as-wesley-clark-praises-its-job-creating-potential.html

[BootinUp]

8. So his explanation/comments don't make sense as in common sense?

Maybe you aren't really listening to what he said.

When someone makes shit up or has an agenda, it is usually easy to detect from the bullshit they spew. Where is the bullshit? Maybe its where you are.

[elleng]

10. I agree, BootinUp,

sounds like not listening to what he said.

[indie9197]

11. I did listen to him

His arguments were made as if Assad will be in power for a long time. Limited strikes worked in the past with a firmly entrenched leader such as Gaddafi, where we made strikes periodically whenever he overstepped his bounds. This situation is different because Assad is very close to being overthrown. The air strikes are not really being used as a deterrent to future chemical attacks (if in fact he ever used them) as Clark is saying. The air strikes are being used to help the rebels overthrow Assad.

As far as his agenda... There is nothing illegal about making money by going into lobbying. Everyone is doing it. However, he is paid by people that have money to be made by instability in the middle east and higher oil prices.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-supreme-allied-commander-corn

I also found his comments about civilian casualties disturbing. They are just numbers to him.

[BootinUp]

12. Whatever. You seem to have no problems with your imagination,

filter, etc.

[jakeXT]

13. "I'm not going to start Third World War for you," Jackson told Clark (He may get his wish now)

Nato supreme commander General Wesley Clark is not being allowed to fade away quietly. Days after the Clinton administration relieved him of his command two months early, Newsweek is reporting that the victor of Kosovo was blocked from sending paratroopers to Pristina airport to pre-empt an unexpected Russian advance.

Lieutenant-general Sir Michael Jackson overruled General Clark because the British commander did not want to spark a clash with the Russians.

"I'm not going to start Third World War for you," General Jackson told the US commander, according to Newsweek. In the hours that followed General Clark's order, both men sought political backing for their position, but only General Jackson received it.

News of the clash between the British and US commanders comes just days after the US snubbed General Clark by ordering him to step down next year, two months early, to make way for Air Force General Joseph Ralston, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

The move is widely seen as a rebuke for the man who led Nato to victory, but who clashed repeatedly with his superiors because he favoured more aggressive tactics. General Clark, for example, pressed for the use of Apache attack helicopters, but his wish was denied amid fears of American casualties.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/02/balkans3

[elleng]

14. This is a b.s. story,

was at the time, and still is now. and SURELY not analogous.

'As Nato's K-For peacekeepers prepared to enter the province on 12 June, they discovered the Russians had got there first.

A contingent of 200 troops, stationed in Bosnia, was already rolling towards Pristina airport.

'Third World War'

General Wesley Clark, Nato's supreme commander, immediately ordered 500 British and French paratroopers to be put on standby to occupy the airport.

''I called the [Nato] Secretary General [Javier Solana] and told him what the circumstances were,'' General Clark tells the BBC programme Moral Combat: Nato at War.

''He talked about what the risks were and what might happen if the Russian's got there first, and he said: 'Of course you have to get to the airport'.

''I said: 'Do you consider I have the authority to do so?' He said: 'Of course you do, you have transfer of authority'.''

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.

General Jackson tells the BBC: ''We were [looking at] a possibility....of confrontation with the Russian contingent which seemed to me probably not the right way to start off a relationship with Russians who were going to become part of my command.''

Russian plans

The Russian advance party took the airport unopposed. The world watched nervously.

A senior Russian officer, General Leonid Ivashev, tells the BBC how the Russians had plans to fly in thousands of troops.

''Let's just say that we had several airbases ready. We had battalions of paratroopers ready to leave within two hours,'' he said.

Amid fears that Russian aircraft were heading for Pristina, General Clark planned to order British tanks and armoured cars to block the runways to prevent any transport planes from landing.

General Clark said he believed it was ''an appropriate course of action''. But the plan was again vetoed by Britain.

Partition fears

Instead, he asked neighbouring countries, including Hungary and Romania not to allow Russian aircraft to overfly their territory.

During the stand-off, Moscow insisted its troops would be answerable only to its own commanders.

Nato refused to accept this, predicting it would lead to the partition of Kosovo into an ethnic Albanian south and a Serbian north.

A deal on the deployment of Russian peacekeepers was reached in early July.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/671495.stm

[BootinUp]

15. kick