- Retired General Wesley Clark has thrown his helmet into
the ring. He has improved the Democratic presidential field by entering
it, just as he improved the Army by leaving it.
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- Clark is a brilliant man, and a brave one. A Rhodes scholar,
he was decorated three times for heroism as commander of an armor company
in Vietnam. "Those of us who knew him as a captain thought the country
would be short-changed if he didn't rise to very high rank," said
a retired Army colonel who was a student of Clark's when Clark taught at
West Point. But Clark's kindergarten teacher probably noted that he doesn't
play well with others. Clark "is able, though not nearly as able as
he thinks, and has tended to put his career ahead of his men to the point
of excess," said a defense consultant well acquainted with the Army's
senior officers. "He is opportunistic and lacks integrity. He will
be an absolute menace if he gets into a position where he can exert influence
on the Army because he lacks true vision and is prone to be vindictive."
-
- Clark "regards each and every one of his subordinates
as a potential threat to his career," said an officer who served under
him when Clark commanded a brigade of the 4th Infantry Division in the
1980s. An officer who served under Clark when he commanded the First Cavalry
Division said he was "the poster child for everything that is wrong
with the general officer corps."
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- Clark doesn't get along terribly well with superiors
or with allies either, which lead to his premature departure as commander
of NATO. Clark was CINCEUR when the Kosovo war began, and bears much of
the responsibility for President Clinton's decision to try to bomb Serb
dictator Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo. Clark ! argued that after a
few days of bombing, Milosevic would fold his tent and slink away. When
the Serbs didn't budge after months of bombing, Clark lost Clinton's favor.
As the war dragged on, Clark advocated the use of ground troops. This put
him at loggerheads with Gen. Henry Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, and with Gen. Eric Shinseki, chief of staff of the Army, who
thought this was a terrible idea. The generals faulted Clark for getting
America into an unnecessary war. These essary war, and for having done
a poor job of preparing for it. "NATO did not expect a long war,"
wrote former Clinton national security aide Ivo Daalder. "Worse, it
did not even prepare for the possibility." The conduct of the war
drew unprecedented criticism from Clark's predecessor, Gen. George Joulwan,
and a quiet rebellion by subordinate commanders.
-
- "Clark found his control over ongoing operations
eroding," wrote retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich. "Rather than
the theater commander, he became hardly more than a kibitzer." What
may have triggered Clark's early departure from NATO was a confrontation
with the British general who was to command NATO peacekeepers. After a
Serb surrender had been negotiated with the help of the Russians, Clark
ordered Sir Michael Jackson to parachute troops onto the airport at the
Kosovar capital of Pristina, so that NATO would hold it before Russian
peacekeepers arrived. Jackson refused. "I'm not going to start the
third world war for you," he told Clark, according to accounts in
British newspapers. Shortly after the confrontation with Jackson, Clark
was told his tour as CINCEUR would end two months early. Neither Shelton
nor Defense Secretary William Cohen attended his retirement ceremony, a
remarkable snub for a four star general.
-
- Clark read Milosevic wrong, helping to provoke the Kosovo
war, which he then fought badly. Clark picked up where he left off in his
second career as a television kibitzer of military operations. As an analyst
for CNN, Clark harshly criticized the war plan for Iraq devised by Gen.Tommy
Franks, the CENTCOM commander, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Clark
turned out to be completely wrong.
-
-
- Comment
- From Tim White
- 10-1-3
-
- Hi Jeff,
-
- I understand that you get a million emails, it speaks
to the immense popularity and interest in what you publish online.
-
- I read your site daily and really appreciate that you
have the courage and venue to speak your truth.
-
- I just have a comment on the hack job by Jack Kelly on
Gen. Wesley Clark. It sounds like something you'd hear on that raving
right wing lunatic Sean Hannity's show or the O'Reilly Factor. This is
the beginning of the subversive Republican attempts at smearing a real
challenger to the Bushinistas attempt at stealing another election and
maintaining their corrupt power base by either making up crap about Clark
or dredging up stuff from disgruntled former subordinates. I don't personally
endorse Clark over any of the other Dems running for president, but this
article seems very out of place on your site and runs counter to what you
typically print.
-
- Unless this was meant to expose what I believe it exposes,
and that was your intention....if so, great job and thank you!
-
- Keep up the good work.
-
- Regards,
-
- Tim White
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