The Real Wesley Clark

Washington Post ^ | 09/18/03 | Richard Cohen

[bedolido]

All around Washington last week -- and before and after on the phone -- I've been busy asking people about Wesley Clark. I talked with people who worked with him, some of them very closely, asking over and over again a variation of the same question: Is Wesley Clark too weird for prime time?

Let me first tell you why I asked the question: It's because Clark in effect got fired from the Pentagon. Not to put too fine a point on it, then-Defense Secretary Bill Cohen, joined by many of Clark's colleagues, came to just plain dislike him.

Some of this had to do with policy -- the Kosovo campaign -- and some with their suspicion that Clark went over their heads to the White House. But some of it was deeply personal. Clark is sometimes compared to Eisenhower, another general who went into politics. But Ike was beloved. That's a word that never comes up when Clark is discussed.

Something about Clark makes people bristle. He is undoubtedly brilliant -- a Rhodes scholar and first in his class at West Point. He is a fine athlete and a Vietnam combat veteran who was decorated for bravery. He won the respect, even the awe, of his colleagues, but too much of the time he did not win their friendship.

[Grampa Dave]

"Clark is sometimes compared to Eisenhower, another general who went into politics. But Ike was beloved. That's a word that never comes up when Clark is discussed."

It will be very interesting to see how the NY Slimes spins and lies to make Clark the DemonicRat Ike in the next few weeks.

[r9etb]

If you filter out Cohen's biases, you get the following:

1. Clark is smart, but an arrogant butthole.

2. He's arrogant, and will bash people around until he gets his way.

And that's about it.

The first one he could probably manage to work around.

The second one spells disaster for him.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Clark is sometimes compared to Eisenhower, another general who went into politics. But Ike was beloved. That's a word that never comes up when Clark is discussed.

Sounds like Adlai Stevenson in fatigues.

[The G Man]

"He won the respect, even the awe, of his colleagues"

The ... "awe"??? I somehow doubt that.

[judywillow]

Wesley Clark is a war criminal and a certified baby-killer. He is responsible for both the Waco incident in Texas and the near debacle in Yugoslavia in 1999, and was shitcanned by the pentagon for trying to start WW-III in the aftermath of Kosovo (the famous incident of the British general refusing an order saying 'I'm not going to start WW-III for you.').

Knowing that Kosovo was another episode of dog-wagging for which he could not plausibly ask NATO airmen or soldiers to risk death or injury, Clark tried bombing Serbian military targets from 30,000' for about a month and, seeing that not working, embarked upon a wholesale campaign of war crimes directed against Serbian civilians and their infrastructure hundreds of kilometers from any legitimate military target. Thousands of little slavic orthodox kids, amongst other civilians, were killed in these mad bombing raids, which included targets such as the bridge at the little market town of Varvarin, the Chinese embassy in Belgrad, and a television station. The idea was to make the lives of ordinary Serbs so miserable that they would somehow or other force Milosevic to hand the ancient heartland of Serbia (Kosovo) over to the KLA/AlQuaeda narco-terrorists. The overall objective, of course, was to take the Juanita Broaddrick story off the front pages of our newspapers.

The laws of war have substantially changed since Hiroshima and Dresden. All of those kinds of things are illegal and have been since 1947, under Geneva conventions and every other law of war.

Somehow or other, I look at those pictures of Milica Rakic and Sanja Milenkovic, and it just seems too high a price for saving Bubba Clinton's ugly face.

All of this is Wesley Clark's handiwork. In fact, it appears to be what the guy specializes in.

In fact, the world outside the United States genreally refers to Kosovo as THE COWARDS' WAR, for reasons which were fairly obvious at the time, and this "cowards' war" was Wesley Clark's supreme accomplishment in life.

I can't believe it would be that terribly difficult to defeat the guy in an election, but Republicans have to take the gloves off, and go after the guy. In particular, somebody in a leadership position has to stand up and say to the world that the war against Serbia was wrong, and the precedent set at Kosovo must be repudiated.

There might still be time to hand Kosovo back to its rightful owners before the UN demands that we hand Texas and California over to Mexico on the same basis.

[mewzilla]

More like Ashley Wilkes :)

[Cicero]

This is actually a whitewash job. "He won the respect, even the awe, of his colleagues. . . ." Yeah, sure, that's why they called him the Ultimate Perfumed Prince.

Clark is not nice. He's not likeable. But on top of that, he was corrupt and incompetent, a real clinton stooge.

No mention of almost starting World War II because of his military stupidity. No mention of his complicity in burning the children at Waco.

[Peach]

Thanks for putting "faces" to Clark's despicable war. I wish your post could be printed on the front page of the NYT.

[MJY1288]

Great Post and I agree with you 100%

These worthless democrats are screaming that we were misled on the reason to go to war in Iraq,and they base these claims on total lies and it's repeated over and over. How about the claim of ethnic cleansing in Clinton's "Cowards War". I believe the figure was 100,000 dead, yet to this day the evidence of that ethnic cleansing has not been found.

You're damn right we need to take the gloves off. All 10 of these democrats are lying bastards who could care less about the 140,000 soldiers we have in Iraq or anywhere else. They would allow Operation Iraqi Freedom to fail and settle for thousands of dead american soldiers if it meant they would win the White House.

My Gloves are off..... How about yours?

[ServesURight]

Too bad the Stupid Party gloves aren't off.

[Wright is right!]

"Clark is not nice. He's not likeable."

Kiss of death. If you apply Common Tater's Ironclad Rule Of Likeability In Presidential Elections, which states simply that in the last 100 years, the most likeable candidate always wins, Clark hasn't a prayer. Neither doth Dean. The fact is, the Dems don't have a likeable candidate this time around, so their chances are very slim. Shrillary is the least likeable of them all, which is why Common Tater's rule pretty much counts her out.

Michael

[capydick]

Has anyone noticed that when he is on TV talking, he doesnt blink? Check it out next time. It could be the Botox.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Nixon in 1968, who was not an incumbent, was more likeable than Hubert Humphrey, AKA The Happy Warrior?

[thegreatbeast]

Thanks for the details. You should post some informative links in your profile section so that we can see source documents.

[SkyPilot]

Much about Clark is both intriguing and exciting. On paper he is almost a perfect general election candidate for the Democrats -- a southerner (Arkansas), moderate, pro-choice, smart as a whip and inoculated against talk-radio demagoguery that equates thought with treason.

Only out of someone like Richard Cohen (and fellow liberals) would these words ooze. I think he has a new SAT Verbal question for candidates:

1. Abortion is to Perfect as Talk-Radio is to:

A. Hate
B. Christian
C. Macho
D. Latte

[colorado tanker]

The fact is, the Dems don't have a likeable candidate this time around

Angry, strident, ideologues tend not to be likable.

[Endeavor]

Has anyone worked out the Clinton strategy in this?

Let's face it, Hillary! doesn't want a dem to win in '04 unless it is her. It seems that both Clintons are backing Clark. They either believe he cannot possibly win even though he's more moderate than Dean, OR Hill plans to get in the race late and win the nomination and then select good 'ol Wes to be her VP running mate.

That's the only angle I can figure. Any thoughts?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

And he can't really remember who he voted for in past presidential elections.

(Uh huh. Sure he can't.)

And of course he's "brilliant" (even though he is completely incoherent at times) - he's running as a Democrat, and all Democrats are "brilliant" if you ask these people. If he sometimes doesn't make sense, it's just that we don't "get it".

This is going to be fun to watch.

[judywillow]

Thanks for putting "faces" to Clark's despicable war.

If the republicans have the cajones to put this story out on mass media, a ticket with Wesley Clark on it could be slaughtered in 04. Just no way the American people are going to elect a baby-killer for president. In fact, if I'm running the republican campaign, you'd see television ads with childrens choruses singing:

Wesley hates the little children,
all the little children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
Wesley Kills them all on sight...

followed by scenes from Waco, followed by scenes from Yugoslavia.