Posted on 09/22/2003 7:55:19 PM PDT by WestCoastDefense
Looks like Hack has been paid and bought for...
Reporting for Duty: Wesley Clark By David H. Hackworth
With Wesley Clark joining the Democratic presidential candidates, there are enough eager bodies pointed toward the White House to make up a rifle squad. This bunch of wannabes could make things increasingly hot for Dubya – as long as they don’t blow each other away with friendly fire.
Since Clark tossed his steel pot into the inferno, I've been constantly asked, “Hack, what do you think of the general?”
For the record, I never served with Clark. But after spending three hours interviewing the man for Maxim’s November issue, I’m impressed. He is insightful, he has his act together, he understands what makes national security tick – and he thinks on his feet somewhere around Mach 3. No big surprise, since he graduated first in his class from West Point, which puts him in the super-smart set with Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur and Maxwell Taylor.
Clark was so brilliant, he was whisked off to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and didn’t get his boots into the Vietnam mud until well after his 1966 West Point class came close to achieving the academy record for the most Purple Hearts in any one war. When he finally got there, he took over a 1st Infantry Division rifle company and was badly wounded.
Lt. Gen. James Hollingsworth, one of our Army’s most distinguished war heroes, says: “Clark took a burst of AK fire, but didn’t stop fighting. He stayed on the field till his mission was accomplished and his boys were safe. He was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. And he earned ‘em.”
It took months for Clark to get back in shape. He had the perfect excuse, but he didn’t quit the Army to scale the corporate peaks as so many of our best and brightest did back then. Instead, he took a demoralized company of short-timers at Fort Knox who were suffering from a Vietnam hangover and made them the best on post – a major challenge in 1970 when our Army was teetering on the edge of anarchy. Then he stuck around to become one of the young Turks who forged the Green Machine into the magnificent sword that Norman Schwarzkopf swung so skillfully during Round One of the Gulf War.
I asked Clark why he didn’t turn in his bloody soldier suit for Armani and the big civvy dough that was definitely his for the asking.
His response: “I wanted to serve my country.”
He says he now wants to lead America out of the darkness, shorten what promises to be the longest and nastiest war in our history and restore our eroding prestige around the world.
For sure, he’ll be strong on defense. But with his high moral standards and because he knows where and how the game’s played, there will probably be zero tolerance for either Pentagon porking or two-bit shenanigans.
No doubt he’s made his share of enemies. He doesn’t suffer fools easily and wouldn’t have allowed the dilettantes who convinced Dubya to do Iraq to even cut the White House lawn. So he should prepare for a fair amount of dart-throwing from detractors he’s ripped into during the past three decades.
Hey, I am one of those: I took a swing at Clark during the Kosovo campaign when I thought he screwed up the operation, and I called him a “Perfumed Prince.” Only years later did I discover from his book and other research that I was wrong – the blame should have been worn by British timidity and William Cohen, U.S. SecDef at the time.
At the interview, Clark came along without the standard platoon of handlers and treated the little folks who poured the coffee and served the bacon and eggs with exactly the same respect and consideration he gave the biggies in the dining room like my colleague Larry King and Bob Tisch, the Regency Hotel’s owner. An appealing common touch.
But if he wins the election, don’t expect an Andrew Jackson field-soldier type. Clark’s an intellectual, and his military career is more like Ike’s – that of a staff guy and a brilliant high-level commander. Can he make tough decisions? Bet on it. Just like Ike did during his eight hard but prosperous years as president.
Well with the latest poll numbers released today. Which I don't believe. (They show Bush losing to someone no one knows anything about. His 'issues' section on his webpage is blank) Anyway, the trolls are all giddy.
I expect us to be hit hard and often now.
When faced with a serious challenge, he over reacts wildly, in the wrong direction. Calamity results (of Iranian and/or DPRK nuke war, or Second Amendment Civil War proportions) due to his misreading and attempting to out bluff an adversary he thinks he understands, but doesn't.
Well Powell and Ms Rice had to love this comment . Is it just me or does that comment border on a tad bit of racism from Hack'n Clark ?
Stay Safe !
You're wrong on both counts. Maxim is not a "skin magazine" (they do revere the female form, but none of their photos would be out of bounds on FR), and their readers do certainly read the articles. In fact, well over a year ago they had the best article on Saddam's sons that I have ever read, period, and that includes the johnny-come-lately coverage during the recent Iraq war.
BTW for all the talk of Hillary's influence, isn't it amazing that this guy now has a revised platform of political views identical to Hillary?
I haven't bothered with Hackworth in ages but this is too much.
I had occasion to hear David Hackworth and Sean Hannity over the course of an hour not so long ago. It confirmed something:
Hackworth is a pro-Democrat Bush-basher unfettered by truth.
Clark is clearly a Hillary shill as well as a very dangerous individual.
He gave the fifteen armored vehicles and as many enlisted personnel together with the CS/Methyl Chloride to the killing teams at Waco.
He sent Jackson to attack the Russians--whom he persisted in calling "Soviets".
We had traitorrapist42 turned at Oxford to become a threat to national security.
Do we need another such psychopath in service to das Butch von Buchenvald overseeing the final solution to the conservative problem?
The short answer is no.
Translation: I want to gut the military, lay Americans bare to terrorist attacks, and kiss the hind ends of every American enemy in the world by joining in their amen corner, "Hate America", song fest, all the while pulling the wool over as many eyes and creating as much darkness as a perfumed prince such as myself can engineer.
He already jumped it months ago, back when he wrote that even if Saddam had nuclear weapons, he had "no way" to deliver them to the US because he had no ICBMs. Um, Hack? Have you heard of *ships*? You know, those things that float on the water?
Here is what Hackworth had to say prior to Gulf War I:
The cover story for Newsweek magazine for the week of January 21, 1991 was “We Will Win, But…” by “America’s Most Decorated War Hero”.
Quotes:
“Casualties won’t be 200 Americans dead a week, as in Vietnam. They will be more than 200 dead an hour in the first round.”
“The aircraft arranged in the Gulf are the wrong mix of aircraft”
“The Iraqis should give a good account of themselves in air attacks.”
“The Abrams M-1A1 tank is a fuel guzzler and a real liability in a roadless terrain”
“For the most part, from rifleman to battalion commander, these dedicated (American) soldiers and Marines have never seen war. And in my judgment they haven’t yet been made hard enough physically and mentally to survive the horror of potential combat with Iraq’s veteran Army.”
As it turned out, Iraq was totally routed at a cost of 137 U.S. dead for the entire war.
Our Black Lab is a better analyst than Hackworth. So is our cat. Their silence on military matters is far preferable to Hackworth's record of consistently being wrong.
Ever read the book "Lucky Bastard"?
It's by an ex-CIA agent and is fiction, but is chilling in its parallels to the story of traitorrapist42, and how he got turned and functioned for life as an "agent in place".
I wonder how Clark rolled him?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.