U.S. must catch Saddam — and soon, Clark says

USA Today ^ | November 16, 2003 | Susan Page

[HAL9000]

WASHINGTON — Retired general Wesley Clark warned Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein was likely to undermine any new Iraqi government. And he said it was important to capture Saddam alive so he could be tried for war crimes.

Clark's comments, at a session with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters and editors, came as the Bush administration was accelerating the turnover of civilian authority to Iraqis. Clark praised the decision as a move "in the right direction" but said no regime was likely to succeed if Saddam stayed on the lam.

"It's going to be very hard for the United States to turn the problem over to the Iraqis if Saddam is still there as the, we might say, illegitimate ruler," said Clark, a Democratic presidential contender. "It's going to make it very hard for an Iraqi government to survive." The Bush administration, under fire for a growing toll of U.S. casualties, agreed this weekend to turn over political control by July 1, regardless of Saddam's whereabouts.

Clark also announced that he would go to the Netherlands next month to testify at the United Nations war-crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president. As supreme allied commander of NATO, Clark led a 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 to expel Yugoslav forces that were brutalizing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of Serbia.

Clark said capturing Saddam should be "a high priority," though administration officials now downplay the search for him. An audiotape purportedly by the ousted Iraqi leader was aired on Arab TV on Sunday. It exhorted Iraqis to wage war against U.S. forces.

Saddam's ability to elude the United States has been an embarrassment for the Bush administration. In the war's early days, President Bush vowed that Saddam would be caught "dead or alive."

Paul Bremer, U.S. administrator of Iraq, said on Fox News Sunday that Saddam should be killed. "The fact that he's still alive and on the loose gives the ability of people around him to hold open the idea that the Baathists will come back," He said, referring to Saddam's party. "So it is important to kill him."

Clark said it was important to catch him alive: "I would hate to see us bust into a bunker and not be able to bring him out alive to stand trial. One of the things you really want to establish is rule of law. It's the essence of peacekeeping and stability operations."

For the same reason, he said, the United States should have participated in the International Criminal Court. The Bush administration has refused for fear that U.S. forces would be subject to politically motivated prosecution.

Clark said he hadn't seen the evidence of Saddam's war crimes, a comment that prompted adviser Chris Lehane to slip him a folded note. "You should make clear that Saddam is a bad guy," the note read. Clark glanced at the note but didn't return to the topic.

Clark has been at or near the top of national polls since he entered the race in September. However, he trails in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first contests will be held, and his missteps have raised questions about his campaign. He is trying to regain momentum with a $1.1 million, two-month TV ad campaign in New Hampshire. The ads highlight his military career.

Clark, 58, fielded questions for more than an hour. He was most passionate in defending his decision to push for U.S. military action against ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. He says debate over that action accounts for criticism leveled at him by William Cohen, who was Defense secretary at the time, and Hugh Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"I don't think Secretary Cohen or the Pentagon fully appreciated what was going on," he said. Cohen moved to cut short Clark's tenure at NATO. Shelton has said Clark's early departure "had to do with integrity and character issues."

"There was never any integrity or character issue there," Clark said. "This was just a policy dispute that people let get personal."

At one point, tears welled in his eyes as he leafed through a book of photographs he had brought of the conflict in Kosovo. He displayed pictures of a Serb soldier kicking a woman lying on the street and of a 5-day-old baby who had died of exposure in the mountains, where her family had fled.

"This is the pornography of violence," he said. He noted that the United States didn't act to stop a bloody civil war in Rwanda. "We dillied and we dallied," he said. "I said I never would let something like that happen again."

[#3Fan]

I think he'll be captured alive.

[dighton]

You can't make this stuff up.

Clark said he hadn't seen the evidence of Saddam's war crimes, a comment that prompted adviser Chris Lehane to slip him a folded note. "You should make clear that Saddam is a bad guy," the note read. Clark glanced at the note but didn't return to the topic.

[struwwelpeter]

Empty man with a head of straw.

[Mr. Mojo]

One thing's for sure -- we have a far better chance of catching Saddam than Clark has of catching Dean.

[HarryCaul]

Wow, you can see how he draws on years of experience to come up with the plan "We should catch this Sadaam guy"

I think maybe I could be a general too.

[Pukin Dog]

When we catch Saddam, there will be more holes in him than in your average cheese grater. No way will he be allowed to become a martyr for the liberals. Kill him, then kill him again, just to be sure. Then kill him one more time for Scott Speicher. Then kill him again for the mass graves. Then take his pulse and kill him one more time for spite.

[Mr. Mojo]

And the perfumed prince was 1st in his class at West Point, too. Standards have evidently changed over there since in the last half century, and I'd imagine leadership qualities take a backseat.

[squidly]

Of course we need to get him (duh), but dead or alive doesn't really matter that much, although more or less in one piece and recognizable does.

[#3Fan]

When we catch Saddam, there will be more holes in him than in your average cheese grater. No way will he be allowed to become a martyr for the liberals. Kill him, then kill him again, just to be sure. Then kill him one more time for Scott Speicher. Then kill him again for the mass graves. Then take his pulse and kill him one more time for spite.

Sounds good to me but Saddam knows that he can be more trouble alive for Bush than dead, and when backed into a corner will make sure he's in a position to be taken alive. Just a little prediction. I could be wrong.

[Lancey Howard]

I would expect that Saddam (and maybe bin Laden) will turn up caught (or their remains will be "found") around the middle of the campaign season if the Bush people are smart. And the Bush people are smart.

[Pukin Dog]

I am confident that when Saddam surrenders, someone will shoot him in the head, then say, "What did he say? I didnt hear him through all the gunfire".

[Lancey Howard]

Yeah, I expect Saddam will die by his own hand during a raid. He will be found in a small office with a computer chock full of terrorist attack plans and child pornography. His pants will be down. And there will be a half-eaten ham sandwich next to his keyboard.

[#3Fan]

lol Could be. I'd be tempted.

[Young Rhino]

Saddam knows that he can be more trouble alive for Bush than dead, and when backed into a corner will make sure he's in a position to be taken alive.

Agree to anything for his surrender. Interrogate him. Get a videotaped confession. Behead him and put his head on a pike in the center of Baghdad and the rest of his remains dumped on the French ambassador's doorstep. Just for the heck of it, give France 24 hours to surrender. Then refuse to accept it because they're too irrelevant to matter. Withdraw all dipomatic recognition of France as a sovereign state and tell the Germans they can have Paris if they want it. :-)

[Pukin Dog]

Make it a BLT, and the child porn GAY.

[Terpfen]

How about, "Clark must capture Saddam--and soon, or else he has even less chance of being elected." Personally, I like the sound of it.

[Polybius]

U.S. must catch Saddam — and soon, Clark says

Hey! I've got a great idea. Let's send Saudi commandos in to catch Saddam.

Whadda ya think? Huh? Huh?

[Lancey Howard]

Okay. And we can always throw in some "barnyard sexcapades", too. With pigs.

[#3Fan]

lol Sounds good!

[Pukin Dog]

Gay, underage pigs.

[McGavin999]

And this guy came to this conclusion all by himself?

[faithincowboys]

Clark's performance on Meet the Press this morning was astoundingly dreadful. This guy needs a mental evaluation. It's very hard to watch him. It's like watching a homeless man with a shave and shower on tv. He is freaking crazy, and it's really sad.

[Adrastus]

Who? Weasley or Saddam?

[OneTimeLurker]

I hope you are not suggesting that the Admin. would sit on information that could prevent attacks on our troops and help destroy the resistance in Iraq.

[Pukin Dog]

I hope you are not suggesting that the Admin. would sit on information that could prevent attacks on our troops and help destroy the resistance in Iraq.

Dont be stupid.

The Administration sits on intelligence to prevent the enemy from figuring out what we know and how we obtain that information. That it will also help Bush during the election is nothing but an unintended consequence.

[OneTimeLurker]

"The Administration sits on intelligence to prevent the enemy from figuring out what we know and how we obtain that information. That it will also help Bush during the election is nothing but an unintended consequence."

No, what was implied was that the Admin. should sit on (or is already sitting on) info that would allow them to capture OBL or Saddam until election season. Not only would that be stupid but if it were done for political purposes it would be treasonous.

[Pukin Dog]

No, you are wrong.

There is a strong possiblity that OBL is already dead, and that the government knows this. However, it may be difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, and even were it provable, it provoke a triggering of terrorist attacks before the US has enough intelligence to know how to defeat them.

Holding back information until you know what to do with it is not treasonous, it is responsible leadership. Bush may be holding back evidence that could help him, but hurt the rest of us. Have you ever considered that possibility?

[need_a_screen_name]

And this guy came to this conclusion all by himself?

Someone in the Bush Administration (can't remember who right now) said the same thing this morning on one of the Sunday morning talking head shows.

[paul51]

These dimwit candidates are really good at staing the obvious. Good thing we have them around. Nobody else in the administration or the DOD could think of these things.

[PoorMuttly]

Maybe he'd surrender if we let him keep his gold toilet.

[pdjplano]

Clark was SOOO bad on MTP this morning, he is so two-faced and shifty it makes my head spin! I love how he basis what he says on "rumor", he probably just reads DU and believes what he reads there...

He won't catch Dean either, IMO, but lots of Dems sure seem to like the guy for some strange reason...

[OneTimeLurker]

Read the author's words again:

"I would expect that Saddam (and maybe bin Laden) will turn up caught (or their remains will be "found") around the middle of the campaign season if the Bush people are smart. And the Bush people are smart."

What you are saying, while possibly correct, has no bearing on his statment and the implications thereof.

[Pukin Dog]

What you are saying, while possibly correct, has no bearing on his statment and the implications thereof.

Just possibly?

Consider that any announcement of the death of Saddam or OBL is going to have to be managed for maximum positive and minimum negative effect. I will grant you that the mention of 'the middle of the campaign' would seem to imply political motive, but I dont agree. I consider the Democrats to be politically aligned with our enemies. Not that they root for them, but that they succeed when our enemies succeed. Under that premise, the Democrats are fair game for tactics that help us succeed in Iraq. We wont succeed if Democrats gain power. Success in Iraq depends upon Bush beating back the Democrats as well as the terrorists. Some people dont want to say that out loud. I'm not one of them.

[Lancey Howard]

I hope you are not suggesting that the Admin. would sit on information that could prevent attacks on our troops and help destroy the resistance in Iraq.

Don't be ridiculous - - use your head.

Do you know what the CIA does when they discover a mole in their ranks? They not only use him as a conduit for disinformation, but they watch him and track him and try to discover his contacts, his methods, and maybe some other moles. Arresting him right away would give away a timeline to the enemy so that they would know what information is reliable and what is not.

Watching Saddam and/or bin Laden (and others) may lead us to countless terror cells, tip us off to pending attacks, ascertain financial sources, and point us to nations (Iran? Syria?) who may be providing aid. Heck, it is certainly possible that some plots have already been foiled.

There is every reason to leave these people in place until we believe that they have revealed nearly all that they can reveal. Since recent reports are claiming that we are going to be largely vacating Iraq around June, that might be a prime time to take these monsters into custody before our useless "allies" get them.

Of course, this is presuming they are not already dead.

Regards,
LH

[Lancey Howard]

Success in Iraq depends upon Bush beating back the Democrats as well as the terrorists.

Yep. And in this case, he can kill two pigs with one stone.

[hellinahandcart]

He has no neck. The man has no neck. He looks like a live bobblehead doll when he speaks...and he sounds like one too.

[johnb838]

What did he say? I didnt hear him through all the gunfire".

Like that WWII movie I saw the other day (the longest day)where this young GI shoots a German then looks around and says "What does 'Bitte, Bitte, Bitte mean?'

[#3Fan]

Who? Weasley or Saddam?

lol If Clark wants to act like Saddam wasn't a menace to the civilized world, then maybe he needs to be captured by the men in white suits.

[bushfamfan]

Russert actually confronted Clark with the many, many contradictions, hypocrisies and lies he's been caught in. And Clark really was pathetic. That was too funny. The man has no inner core or moral compass.

[Voice in your head]

I'll bet that Wesley Clark is relieved, after hearing today's news. Perhaps he will take credit for the capture, by alluding to this article.

[XEHRpa]

If only GEN Clark had your prescience, he might be able to keep his big foot out of his mouth.

[dighton]

Stranger than fiction.

Wesley Clark calls for transparent trial of Saddam

[Gone_Postal]

Bush: Hey Clark is this soon enough.

[JusPasenThru]

Kewl bump.

[BJungNan]

Good find. Good post.

[wattsmag2]

Wesley Clark calls for transparent trial of Saddam

Freerepublic calls for Wesley Clark to STFU and go away.

[#3Fan]

If only GEN Clark had your prescience, he might be able to keep his big foot out of his mouth.

Poor Clark, he lost an issue to complain about. Do Democrats ever do anything but sit in the back seat and repeat "Are we there yet?"? :^)