Clark and Waco

[SlavesandBulldozers]

I'm starting to see a lot of action in RW-land regarding Wesley Clark's connection to the Waco massacre. I will not dignify any of them (who are predominantly Right Wing, but there do seem to be some credible rags reporting it - the village voice for instance) with a direct link from here, but just google it.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. Yeah, this has been pretty seriously debunked.

I think Salon.com ran a piece on it.

[maha]

2. "God's General" John Boykin

The right-wing's new favorite son Gen. John Boykin had a lot more hand's-on experience with Waco than did Clark.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031103-526381,00.html

As a captain in 1980, Boykin vainly tried to help rescue the 53 U.S. hostages held by Iran, a secret mission that ended in flames at Desert One, killing eight U.S. servicemen. Three years later, as a major, he helped invade Grenada. In 1992, as a colonel, he led the manhunt in Colombia for drug lord Pablo Escobar. The next year he advised Attorney General Janet Reno on what kind of gas to use to end the Federal Government's standoff with a religious group in Waco, Texas. But the experience that perhaps marked him most came six months later, in October 1993, in downtown Mogadishu. He and his troops were there when 18 soldiers died in an effort to snatch a Somali warlord—a tough day immortalized in Mark Bowden's book Black Hawk Down. Boykin told a Florida audience last year that he collapsed in his bunk that day, angry that God had let him down. "There is no God," Boykin sobbed in the wake of their deaths. "If there was a God, he would have been here to protect my soldiers." But in the same address, Boykin says he heard God answer him, "If there is no God, there is no hope." Now that he faces another trial, Boykin may hope for a high-level intervention again.

Now, that's a DIRECT involvement. General Clark, on the other hand, was connected to the Waco fiasco very indrectly.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031019/nysu018_1.html

The only official document to surface apparently linking Clark to Waco is a declassified Pentagon report that identifies -- by title only -- Army brass who provided "training, equipment and material" to law-enforcement agencies for the operation. Among them: the commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, who at the time was General Clark. A source familiar with Clark's military record said that at one point Clark's outfit was ordered to supply some equipment to the FBI. The Clark campaign denies their man had any direct role in the Waco assault.

Clark wasn't involved in any of the decision-making or plans or tactics at Waco. He was asked to supply support, and it seems he did. He could not very well have refused. Only in fevered right-wing fantasies was Clark responsible for whatever happened there.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

3. ok, cool

it had begun to concern me, because I consider myself a Dean/Clark supporter, but Waco severely pissed me off.

[Wickerman]

4. Only in fevered right-wing fantasies was Clark responsible

nicely stated. Of course, there are no shortages of those. Good debunk - solid.

[JackRiddler]

5. Actually

He could have tried to refuse to supply the equipment under Posse Comitatus, which bans U.S. military action against U.S. citizens. But of course he has plenty of leeway for playing dumb. (Gee, I could have never guessed what they wanted all that gear for!)