Gen. Clark: Saddam Not a Criminal

NewsMax.com ^ | 9/21/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

In a little noticed interview with Fortune Magazine last week, presidential frontrunner Gen. Wesley Clark defended Saddam Hussein against charges that he was engaged in crimes against his own people at the time the Iraq war started, contending instead that the Iraqi dictator should have gotten a pass because his atrocities took place ten years ago.

Asked why it was right for President Clinton to use military force to halt Slobodan Milosevic's crimes against humanity in Kosovo, but not for President Bush to do the same thing against Saddam, Clark said that in Iraq, "The imminence of stopping a guy from committing a crime in progress - it wasn't there."

"In Kosovo you had ethnic cleansing actually unfolding, and we had intervened to stop it," the ex-NATO commander insisted, without commenting on the torture chambers, rape rooms and mass graves discovered in Iraq by coalition forces.

Instead, the Democratic frontrunner suggested that the Iraqi dictator deserved a pass by outlining what Fortune described as Clark's "Statute of Limitations for Genocidal Thugs."

"It was ten years ago that Saddam brutalized the Shiite Muslims in the south," he argued. "And he used chemical weapons 15 years ago."

Instead, said the retired military man, Saddam brutality was really no worse than crimes committed by leaders in China more than a decade ago, telling Fortune:

"We still deal with communist China, right? During the Cultural Revolution they had cannibalism in China. And the same guys that ran over the students in Tiananmen, they're still there."

Fortune writer Bill Powell pointed out, however, that while China is still a police state, "the recently departed General Secretary Jiang Zemin, to take but one example, was promoted from mayor of Shanghai to succeed Deng Xiaoping in part because he avoided bloodshed during Tiananmen. . . . Have you ever heard of Saddam promoting someone because he avoided killing somebody?"

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

2004 Elections
Saddam Hussein/Iraq

[A. Pole]

My understanding of Kosovo was that the "ethnic cleansing" was vastly overstated for the purpose of having an excuse for Klintoon to show off his incomparable skills as commander-in-chief.

Actually the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was and is perpetuated by Muslim Albanians against the Christian Serbs. Kosovo was the craddle of Serbian nation and the Church life and it is becoming the center of crime and Islamic extremism. Priceless monuments of the Christian art are being destroyed in order to remove the memory of the past.

[concerned about politics]

Does he advocate letting criminals out of jail if 10 years have passed since they committed their crimes, too?

Jeffery Domer would be out and leading a gay cult today if still alive. Now that's scary!

[razorback-bert]

How about a link?


Just copy and paste.

[holyscroller]

See post #73. Are you a West Pointer?

[BigBobber]

It's pretty clear what's happening here. The Clintoon's are stung bad by comparisons between their Kosovo adventure and Bush's success in Iraq. It is hard for them to criticize Bush on "no UN approval", "no national security interest in Iraq" because the Kosovo mis-adventure pales in comparison.

So they get their little puppet boy, Clark, to start the spin about how Kosovo was justified and not Iraq. BillyBob is over there this weekend shedding crododile tears for the murdered KLA terrorists, also trying to rewrite history.

The Clintoons will ride Clark for a while to provide cover for Hillary to start her campaign, then they will drop him like a hot potato.

[SSN558]

Ever wonder what good the Posse Comitatus Act is when it can be put aside for convienence sake?

The Posse Comitatus Act is a good and wise law. However, the laws can only be as good/bad as the persons charged with enforcing them.

In the case of the Waco massacre, the executive branch of government in charge of enforcing Posse Comitatus became the violators. We have a constitutional mechanism for dealing with this situtation and it is called impeachment. The congress and Senate failed to do their duty by letting clinton cop a plea for perjury. Then they failed to convict.

This is why character matters and a Westly Clark presidency with the fithly clintons running the democrap party would be disasterous for America.

[dighton]

This one?

“I would have been a Republican,” Clark told them, “if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls.”

[RoarkMan]

What an idiot! A moral idiot. I really think the Clintons are manipulating this campaign to get the dems to lose in 04 so that Hillary can run in 08.

Everytime one of the pack gets too much attention, they pop up and steal the show. This is just the latest ruse.

Pathetic.

[Mo1]

Does it bother anyone when an american shills for a deposed socialist dictator ?

Carter has been doing that for years

[scabbage]

Thank you, Former Gen. Clark, for exemplifying why Democrats should never be allowed to hold office.

Exactly, and I hope one day but highly doubt it, that the people in this country will one day wake up and vote them out of existence. Like Ann Coulter says, "It`s time for them to go the way of the Whigs." The war on terrorism, and we got to fight it on two fronts. NY Rep. Rangel On Clark: 'He Can Save This G-ddam Nation From Self-Destruction'..Since when is defending the United States from further terror attacks considered "self-destruction"? Your either with us or your with the terrorists. And fat bloated drunk Ted Kennedy going around screaming the war in Iraq is a farce...Yeah ok, its only mass graves. It`s only genocide. It`s only how many tons of bio, chemical weapons that Saddam never told anyone how he got rid of, and kept violating how many UN resolutions? Ramzi Yusef leader of the first WTC attack only came into this country with an Iraqi passport, as did three other of his co-terrorists..Saddam is a complete innocent.

Err..what do you do when your Senator is a severe alcholic whose bulbous nose is almost falling off? Errr...you re-elect him and re-elect him and re-elect him and re-elect him and re-elect him and re-elect him and re-elect him....

[concerned about politics]

Last January, at a conference in Switzerland, he happened to chat with two prominent Republicans, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Marc Holtzman, now president of the University of Denver. “I would have been a Republican,” Clark told them, “if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls.” Soon thereafter, in fact, Clark quit his day job and began seriously planning to enter the presidential race—as a Democrat.

The man has no soul. Because the Republicans didn't make him top dog after 9/11, he immediately believes in gay marrage, facist health care, torture of the pre-born, tax oppression, land grabs, illiterate children, and everything anti-life?
He just wants to kill everyone and everything because he's angry at us?
The man is insane!

[Don Carlos]

I agree we should encourage Weasley. He is my new favorite dem, replacing Al Sharpton. With candidates like this, I can easily imagine a Pubbie sweep in '04.

[bethelgrad]

nope. went to a christian college after a 4 year stint in the Marines. never had the brains for one of our military academies.

[ought-six]

I wonder if the American people truly understand just how dangerous the Democrats are to the security and sovereignty of the United States?

[ought-six]

I wonder if the American people truly understand just how dangerous the Democrats are to the security and sovereignty of the United States?

[Gucho]

Right Wesley and his sons were Boy Scouts.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

"We still deal with communist China, right? During the Cultural Revolution they had cannibalism in China. And the same guys that ran over the students in Tiananmen, they're still there."

The best lies always have an element of truth to them. Wesley Rodham Clark has learned from the masters.

[I_saw_the_light]

well, newsweek has picked their candidate. theres an incredibly stupid article, an incredibly stupid poll, and then about 2/3 of the way down on the left is a little flash presentation called presidential plunge, which scrolls pictures of past presidents in their trunks, JFK, Ford, Reagan and.....Weasley himself. (I mustve slept thru the election) its a hoot. Link

[concerned about politics]

I agree we should encourage Weasley. He is my new favorite dem, replacing Al Sharpton. With candidates like this, I can easily imagine a Pubbie sweep in '04.

There's this thing called "first impression." People either like a person when they meet him/her, or they don't. First impressions are usually correct.
Clark is one of those guys that just doesn't have it. My guess is he's unelectable. Only the die hard commies will support this guy. About 30%.
If the extreme 30% supports him, it'll be a red flag to the sane (or somewhat sane undecideds) not to vote for him.

[I_saw_the_light]

I just saw your post-I linked to the article. did you catch the swinsuit story? even ore frightening.