Wesely Clark and the Kosovo War

[Az Joe]

"...Clark thought he had Slobodan Milosevic figured out, and that the mere threat of NATO bombing — and perhaps a day or two of the real thing — would bring him to the negotiating table and force him to be reasonable. When this turned out not to be the case, Clark had no Plan B, because President Clinton had ruled out ground troops from the outset.

So, NATO continued with a limp air campaign that was inadequate to stopping Milosevic's ethnic-cleansing campaign, that appalled other members of the military brass who thought Clark had helped drag the U.S. into a near-fiasco, and that led to such ill-feeling toward Clark in the Pentagon that he was fired at war's end, launching his career as a TV pundit..."

[Az Joe]

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry082603.asp

[Pikamax]

bump

[tioga]

Thanks for the address....

Looks like a dem only has the killer instinct when it comes to their own political survival...when it comes to the survival of their country -- forget-about-it!

Glad to see Bush has his priorities straight.

(After all, no limousine liberals were killed on 9/11, only the dispensable, ignorant, flag-waving little people from the unwashed masses. Can't even see them thru the tinted windows...)

[BOBTHENAILER]

But one million refugees later, and only because one of Gen. Clark's subordinates, Gen. Michael C. Short, did an end run around Clark to institute an increasingly aggressive bombing campaign against Belgrade. By the end, Bacevich writes, "Clark found his control over ongoing operations eroding. Rather than the theater commander, he became hardly more than a kibitzer."

Something to keep in mind the next time — and it will be soon — you hear about Wes Clark's prescience.

This is the guy everybody says has a chance?

[Cicero]

Gen. Michael C. Short, did an end run around Clark to institute an increasingly aggressive bombing campaign against Belgrade

If this is true, General Short deserves no admiration either. The bombing was purely of civilian targets: apartments, dams, hospitals, bridges, power stations, refugee columns. I think they nailed about three tanks in the whole campaign. But they left the civilians in Belgrade to freeze in the dark in midwinter.

[lugsoul]

Somebody on FR needs to get this story straight. Either Clark was responsible for bombing civilians, or his subordinate did an end run and Clark was too ineffective to prevent the bombing of civilians - anybody know the real deal?

[Weimdog]

This from Alexander Cockburn,frequent contributor to The Nation (socialist rag) -

Early in 1994, he was a candidate for promotion from two to three star general. Only one hurdle remained - a war game exercise known as the Battle Command Training Program in which Clark would have to maneuver his division against an opposing force. The commander of the opposing force, or "OPFOR" was known for the military skill with which he routinely demolished opponents.

But Clark's patrons on high were determined that no such humiliation should be visited on their favorite. Prior to the exercise therefore, strict orders came down that the battle should go Clark's way. Accordingly, the OPFOR was reduced in strength by half, thus enabling Clark, despite deploying tactics of signal ineptitude, to triumph. His third star came down a few weeks later.

Battle exercises and war games are of course meant to test the fighting skills of commanders and troops. The army's most important venue for such training is the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, where Clark commanded from October 1989 to October 1991 and where his men derisively nicknamed him "Section Leader Six" for his obsessive micro-management.

At the NTC, army units face a resident OPFOR that has, through constant battle practice coupled with innovative tactics and close knowledge of the terrain, become adept at routing the visiting "Blue Force" opponents. For Clark, this naturally posed a problem. Not only were his men using unconventional tactics, they were also humiliating Blue Force generals who might nurture resentment against the NTC commander and thus discommode his career at some future date. To the disgust of the junior OPFOR officers Clark therefore frequently fought to lose, sending his men on suicidal attacks in order that the Blue Forces should go home happy and owing debts of gratitude to their obliging foe.

http://www.counterpunch.org/clark.html

From The Guardian, Tuesday August 3, 1999:

No sooner are we told by Britain's top generals that the Russians played a crucial role in ending the west's war against Yugoslavia than we learn that if Nato's supreme commander, the American General Wesley Clark, had had his way, British paratroopers would have stormed Pristina airport threatening to unleash the most frightening crisis with Moscow since the end of the cold war.

"I'm not going to start the third world war for you," General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of the international K-For peacekeeping force, is reported to have told Gen Clark when he refused to accept an order to send assault troops to prevent Russian troops from taking over the airfield of Kosovo's provincial capital.
Robertson's plum job in a warring Nato

Mary Robinson, the UN human rights commissioner, said Nato's bombing campaign had lost its "moral purpose". Referring to the cluster bomb attack on residential areas and market in the Serbian town of Nis, she described Nato's range of targets as "very broad" and "almost unfocused". There were too many mistakes; the bombing of the Serbian television station in Belgrade - which killed a make-up woman, among others - was "not acceptable". No blood money by Richard Norton-Taylor on the moral confusion of Nato, which refuses compensation to the innocent people it bombed.

http://www.zpub.com/un/clark.html

ROBERT NOVAK: Members of Congress who, during their spring recess, met in Brussels with Gen. Wesley Clark, the NATO supreme commander, were startled by his bellicosity. According to the lawmakers, Clark suggested the best way to handle Russia's supply of oil to Yugoslavia would be aerial bombardment of the pipeline that runs through Hungary. He also proposed bombing Russian warships that enter the battle zone. The American general was described by the members of the congressional delegation as waging a personal vendetta against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "I think the general might need a little sleep," commented one House member.-Balkan News from The Progressive Review

"I am a kind of hard-nosed, dusty boots armor man who knows what it takes to maneuver men," Clark said.

Clark is a longtime friend of Clinton and his current position has more to do with his political flexibility than his war making prowess. He is reportedly referred to as the " Supreme Being " by the more earnest soldiers under his command.
From ... did anyone else notice that Clark was commanding Fort Hood, Texas during the Waco incident? Most (if not all) of the illegal military hardware and personnel used against the women and children at Waco came from Fort Hood, Texas

"Known by those who've served with him as the "Ultimate Perfumed Prince," he's far more comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die." - CLARK AND VIETNAM - DEFENDING AMERICA by David H. Hackworth, April 20, 1999

"He says the basic problem with US armed forces is that selfless grunts willing to die for their country are being sold out by selfish "perfumed princes" like Colin Powell and Norman Schwartzkopf with the blessing of "morally corrupt" political leaders from the president on down. He says we can have a far more efficient fighting force and still cut the military budget from US$300 billion to $150 to $200 billion, if we consolidate our four military services into one, pull out of Korea and Europe (which can defend themselves), and stop procuring expensive high-tech weapons systems we don't need. Noise - Hackworth talks about his new book Hazardous Duty, which he describes as an attempt to "wake up America" about our urgent need to reform the military.
Total length: 15 minutes, 17 seconds ... David Hackworth's home page

[Grampa Dave]

Yep, good old Weaselly Clark, another Rat pervert trying to be president.

[BOBTHENAILER]

I think you're correct in that assessment.

[Quilla]

Oddly enough, the liberal slanted bottom of the hour news report I heard at lunch today mentioned Clark and Kosovo. Clark's candidacy was announced, his military experience was touted to aid in defeating Bush, and his close relationship to Bill Clinton was mentioned. Then the totally unbiased, uninformed newsman stated that Kosovo was thought to be Bill Clinton's most successful military campaign.

[Hostage]

You are very perceptive. Clark/Clinton policy of bombing Belgrade and civilians was a war crime. It is something that we as Americans and our media never talk about.

If Clark persists in his bid to run for President, he will revive the Kosovo campaign. It will undermine our efforts in Iraq because alot of European resentment to our war in Iraq had its roots in the revelations of the Kosovo/Belgrade crimes. The subsequent lack of evidence of genocide also undermines our credibility.

In short, Clark is a Clinton political appointee, a yes man for some dark history that is too sensitive to debate in these times.

The contrast between Bush and Clinton policy could not be starker. Clintonism was to fabricate (lie) ends to justify means. Bush seeks the truth and justifies the means for preserving the truth. Clark in all this is a signal that Clinton's world is at the doorstep, waiting to challenge Bush's truth. The problem in so doing is that truth will confront Clark and he has in the past been very weak at accomodating the truth, let alone debating it.

And let us not forget that Belgrade civilians were bombed to force Milosevich to accept the fact that the United States was led by people that were insane, yes insane. For the Belgrade bombing was the only way to shorten the outcome before Congress as led by Mr. Campbell would cutoff funding of the war in Yugoslavia, and hence make Clinton a defeated President.

As much as we love our America, we were wrong to bomb Belgrade just as it was wrong for innocent civilians to be killed on September 11, 2001. We were wrong because Belgrade never attacked us. Dresden, Hiroshima and so on were all based on an attack against America. Although September 11 and the bombing of Belgrade share crime and not war as their ultimate attribute, America under Clinton and the bombing of Belgrade should never be used as an excuse for others to bomb our civilians. We are right to seek and destroy terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and at home.

Our America is not immune from committing crimes against other populations. But our Constitution ensures that our tyrants have limited time. That gives us some of the moral high ground.

I have resolved that we must be winners but that we must never allow again a man such as Clinton to have power over our military, never again.

[BOBTHENAILER]

have resolved that we must be winners but that we must never allow again a man such as Clinton to have power over our military, never again.

A resolution I emphatically share.

[Hoplite]

The bombing was purely of civilian targets: apartments, dams, hospitals, bridges, power stations, refugee columns.

That, Cicero, is a load of crap - I find it amazing that the far left, which still embraces Milosevic the man, has such an avid following, not to mention a collection of useful idiots who parrot their propaganda here on FR.

[flamefront]

Clark thought he had Slobodan Milosevic figured out, and that the mere threat of NATO bombing -- and perhaps a day or two of the real thing -- would bring him to the negotiating table and force him to be reasonable

No, you do not force your opponent to be reasonable by lying about him. If I were Milosevic and saw these doctored photos of purported mass graves paraded throughout the world media being blamed on me I would go ballistic.

This was why the U.S. bombed, remember:

Fake photo reconnaissance.
Wesley Clark's and the Clinton's fraud on the world.