This article does in fact make sense out of what's going on in Libya; I'd been trying to figure out a motive for this one for the last several weeks and hadn't been able to come up with anything.
No, I can’t be that charitable to Clark. He is a retired General (4-star). He therefore is well-aware of the personnel constraints on the Armed Forces, and he understands that the logistical capabilities do not exist to support so many far-flung operations. Therefore, if he heard the cited rumor, he would immediately recognize it as fatuous. Any general officer would so recognize it, so I don’t believe that he heard it from another general.
Also, if he has a shred of political sense, he would see that the requisite political support to engage in so many operations could not be mustered, even in the immediate post 9/11/2001 period.
Sorry, his purported story is rancid.