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

[PhiKapMom]

I think we should all help them out a little bit by providing them this article to use against Weasley Clark!

Clark is turning out to be the worst of the worst and I didn't think that was possible for the RAT candidates to get any worse but Clark has exceeded my low expectations!

[CyberAnt]

Saddam is not a criminal - he's an enemy combatant! Criminal = court; combatant = hanging

[EternalVigilance]

That pic you posted is going to give me nightmares for a week...

[EternalVigilance]

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."

The new RAT law enforcement model: if the perp manages to finish the crime, he is thereafter given a pass. Five minute statute of limitations.

I can see how a Clinton or a Clintonista might like that...

[F.J. Mitchell]

For a change, this E-6 is free to go nose to nose with an O-6, and I have to respectfully (more or less) disagree with every thing you said-SIR!!

I have no knowledge of Gen. Clark's resume before his stint as the alleged commander of NATO forces in the Balkans.But every thing that I seen and heard of and from him in that particular tour of duty, sounded more like the pilot for another Military insulting TV series, than a genuine life and death military campaign. The title could be something like, "Frank Burns, gets promoted."

When Military people, especially Field Grade Officers, begin to throw their support to the proteges of Military despising creatures such as Johnson, Carter and Clinton, I'm forced to either suspect the soundness of their judgement, or to question their motivation.

General Clark may be just as honorable as you proclaim, but unfortunately he is merely a mindless puppet, whose strings are manupilated and controlled by that master puppetier-Bill Clinton.

The least of the General's problems is us, his very life depends on getting the hell out of the way, when Bill Clinton decides the stage is set for the entrance into the race, of Hera the Henious.

Is the fact that I am laughing my ass off at your arguments an indication of the absurdity thereof, or just a reflection upon my peonic upbringing?

[EternalVigilance]

Okay.

Here is a reasonable argument against Mr. Clark:

He favors the continued mass killing of babes in the womb...the most helpless and defenseless of Americans.

This alone, putting aside all other things, utterly disqualifies him, and all like him, from being qualified to lead a free republic that is based on the God-given, unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In fact, it disqualifies him from being qualified for any public office whatsoever. Anyone with judgement that poor just isn't fit.

EV

[F-117A]

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

It bothers me even more when an American shills for a future socialist dictator!

[concerned about politics]

In the version I've heard, the anti-Christ wins the election. You're damn right I'm afraid.

No, the anti-Christ may have been a politician before, but he becomes a "Self appointed king" by his own arrogance. He'll simply take the job of world president by himself, and people will actually let him get away with it.
He'll start taking over world politics just because he thinks he is the only one worthy of the position. He thinks he's Gods gift to the earth.
He "decieves many through his lieing tounge". Clark is too much of an idiot. I don't think he could get the world leaders to worship the ground he walks on. The anti-Christ can.

[F-117A]

In fact, the world outside the United States genreally refers to Kosovo as THE COWARDS' WAR....

When asked about how the Kosovo war was going, one TV military analyst responded, "I won't call it a war. I'd call it coercive diplomacy by bombing!"

[concerned about politics]

He is fair game for commentary on the policies his candidacy presents and for the efficiency and effectiveness that a Clark Presidency portends. But to accuse him of every specie of disloyalty, dishonor and collaboration with America's enemies is contempt of the most disgraceful order.

Boy, where have you been? Living in a barn? The guys a friggen nut case! Even Clinton fired him for trying to start a war with Russia! Shhhesh.
If you think Bush is a hawk, wait until you learn more about this guy than what your cue cards are telling you.
You'll be begging the Conservatives for their forgiveness, for you know not what you do!

[RightOnline]

Anyone who has spent any time in the military knows a "Clark" or two. Butt-kissing politicians with the IQ of a tomato; wouldn't know a principle or an original thought if it jumped up and bit 'em in the ass.

If this country ever elected a Clark, then it would fully deserve what it gets in return.

[F-117A]

General Clark is an honorable man who dedicated his adult career to serving everyone on this site. .

...

Reasonable arguments get attention, absurdities get laughs.

LOL You're right!

[bushfamfan]

Yet another item for the Republicans and Bush administration to use against this Clintoon general. This man has really provided numerous insights into what he's all about. He is no leader, he is a hypocrite, a liar-yes he is a Demonrat after all.

[maestro]

General 'Kurds' Clark..........at your 'service'.

/sarcasm

[Homer1]

I'm pretty sure Clark doesn't believe his own BS. He's just positioning himself.

It's modern politics - it doesn't matter what you believ, or what you know to be true, it's what grouping of positions you can sew together to get the most votes.

If clark concurs with Bush on Iraq, he has no chance, as most of that constituency will vote for Bush anyway. The alternative...make the case for sadaam.

It's sick, but that's politics.

[judywillow]

When asked about how the Kosovo war was going, one TV military analyst responded, "I won't call it a war. I'd call it coercive diplomacy by bombing!"

If I'm running the republican campaign against any kind of a dem ticket with Clark on it, you're gonna see a children's chorus 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 every kind of scene from Yugoslavia and Kosovo, and every kind of scene from Waco Texas.

[concerned about politics]

Anyone who has spent any time in the military knows a "Clark" or two.

And the reports comming in from the military personal about Clark are negative, SIR!
( The Dems can write off those military votes for Clark. They ain't commin'. LOL)

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

No, the anti-Christ may have been a politician before, but he becomes a "Self appointed king" by his own arrogance.

He'll simply take the job of world president by himself, and people will actually let him get away with it.

He'll start taking over world politics just because he thinks he is the only one worthy of the position. He thinks he's Gods gift to the earth.

He "decieves many through his lieing tounge"

Sounds like we're talking about UN Secretary General William Jefferson Clinton. With Hillary and Wesley Clark in the White House, everything you say could be pulled off rather easily.

[ch53gunner]

"Wussy Clark" = boot-licking Klintoon Lackey

[weegee]

I didn't know that there was a statute of limitations on war crimes for dictators who are still in power.

Someone should ask him where he stands on the issue of reparations for slavery in America.