Wes Clark defends Murtha on Haditha - Bill O'Reilly caves

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Wed May-31-06 12:52 PM
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Wes Clark defends Murtha on Haditha - Bill O'Reilly caves

This is on the Securing America site. With permission:

General Wesley Clark on "The O'Reilly Factor"
May 30, 2006
Transcript by Reg NYC

Bill O'Reilly: Now for the top story tonight, another view of this. Joining us from Washington, Fox News military analyst General Wesley Clark.

General, if you were on active duty over in Iraq and you heard Congressman Murtha, you know, 'don't stick up for the military Charlie', you know and, and really bomb throwing, agitating in my opinion, what would you think about that?

General Wesley Clark: Well, I don't think I'd interpret it that way, not quite like you put it Bill. I think that what Congressman Murtha's doing is a legitimate function of the Legislative Branch. He's not part of the Executive Branch of government, and he's getting fed information from the inside. He obviously has had a lot of people who have talked to him about this. He's not making this up, and that's the way he sees it, and he wants to get the facts out.

Look, when these things start to happen, and all of my sources in and around the Pentagon indicate that in fact, something like this instant did happen. It was murder. People were covered up. Now, I haven't seen the investigation, but people who have, are familiar with the facts are reporting these things. And when it happens like that, it's an indicator that you're on the edge of feasibility of your policy. It's an indicator that the, the stress on the units is such that standards of discipline and, and, and performance are, are breaking down at the margin.

Bill O'Reilly: See, I disagree. I disagree.

General Wesley Clark: And it's a real warning for us.

Bill O'Reilly: I disagree. In Iwo Jima, in the Battle of the Bulge, Malmedy, all these things, and you're a military historian. You know these happened. It happened in every war. It's happened in every army, and you're right, it's a breakdown caused by stress, and a breakdown has to be dealt with by the military extremely quickly, effectively.

General Wesley Clark: Yes.

Bill O'Reilly: Murderers, if, if they're deemed guilty in a, in a military court of justice have to be punished. But to draw a wider implication, General, when 95%, and I think you'd agree with that figure, of American forces overseas under tremendous stress are performing heroically every day, to draw a wider implication at this juncture brutally unfair, both to our forces and to our country. What say you?

General Wesley Clark: I say that, first of all, you'll have to show me and prove to me that there were ever any American soldiers in Belgium and Normandy or in Iwo Jima who murdered civilians. Secondly, I think you're too low when you say 95% of the forces are performing effectively. I'd say 99.5% of the forces are performing effectively, maybe higher. But when you have incidents like this, and you have chains of command under enormous stress, that is an indicator that things aren't going right. You've got to be sensitive to those indicators. You've got to fix the problem, otherwise it's going to get worse.

-snip

Bill O'Reilly: But I, in, in Mal-, in, in Malmedy, as you know, US forces captured SS forces who had their hands in the air, and they were unarmed, and they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record, been documented. In Iwo Jima, the same thing occurred. Japanese attempted to surrender, and they were burned in their caves.

General Wesley Clark: Bill, that's a lot different than this.

Bill O'Reilly: Okay. Listen-

General Wesley Clark: These are no forces.

-snip

General Wesley Clark: There's a big difference between-

Bill O'Reilly: But Murtha isn't doing that.

General Wesley Clark: -being in a fire fight and some guy who suddenly, after he's been shooting at you, throws up his hand and says, 'Woop! Now you can't shoot me, because I've put down my weapon.' That's one thing. It's another thing, if it's true as reported, that they broke into homes and shot-

Bill O'Reilly: Okay, but whoa, whoa.

General Wesley Clark: -men, women and children

Bill O'Reilly: I don't wanna, I don't wanna judi- Listen-

General Wesley Clark: That, that's not, that's not the same thing.

-snip

Bill O'Reilly: You're, you're bending over backwards to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll admit.

General Wesley Clark: I'm just telling you what, the way I see it.

Bill O'Reilly: May- I know. Maybe I'm wrong about it. I'd like, I'd like to talk to the man face to face like we're talking to. General, thanks as always.

Video and full transcript:

http://securingamerica.com/node/1047

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