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Clark, a Clinton pal from their Arkansas and Oxford days, zoomed up the promotion ladder light years ahead of his peers because of that connection. Perfumed prince gets the axe;

NATO's General Wesley Clark is the first military leader in our country's recent history who won a war without receiving a Fifth Avenue parade.

Instead of being lionized, he got just what the rest of the U.S. Army has gotten in the last decade: downsized.

The Pentagon's spin is, "This is a normal rotation, his tour was just shortened." It was shortened, all right. A review of past NATO skippers shows they had four to five years in the job as opposed to Clark's less than three.

So what went wrong?

Was it Clark's apocalyptic order to use NATO forces for blocking Russia's end run at the Kosovo air base, or his threats to have NATO sea power stop Russian ships from supplying the Serb army with oil? Either act of bad judgement could well have triggered a nuclear war with Russia.

Was it because Clark and his flacks kept crowing about how NATO was destroying the Serb army, when in truth NATO barely laid a glove on its opponent?

Was it because Clark's $120,000 U.S. Army Mercedes -- with a reported highly classified radio system aboard -- was car-jacked while his wife used it as a personal vehicle to drive to the golf course?

Certainly these sins, plus his hot temper, abrasive style and demand for much of America's air assets to fight the Serbs, didn't exactly win fans in Washington. Like a little boy stamping his feet, he wanted everything NOW and showed no concern for the Pentagon's need to maintain global forces to cover threats from other fronts such as Iraq and North Korea.

For sure, Clark is one of the smartest guys ever to wear four stars. He finished number one in his West Point class and graduated with honors from Oxford and the National War College. He was a war hero in Vietnam, and as a young captain was earmarked as general officer material.

But among mud soldiers, he's known as a guy who never paid his dues with the troops in the trenches and doesn't understand the nitty-gritty of war or what motivates warriors down at the bayonet level. He's like a doctor who's brilliant at theory but dangerous with a scalpel because he hasn't been there and done that long enough to learn the skills of the trade.

In 33 years of service, Clark spent only seven and one-half years in command with troops from platoon to division level -- barely enough time to learn what makes a tank platoon tick. The rest of his service was as a staff weenie, an aide, a student at the White House or at some fat cat headquarters.

The man is not a field soldier; he's more a CEO in uniform. Perhaps an efficient manager, but not a Patton-like leader. The troops call his sort "Perfumed Princes," brass known for their micromanagement bias and slavish focus on "show over go" and covering their tails with fancy footwork.

Unfortunately, today's senior Army ranks are filled with such managers -- and these kind of dweebs are why the U.S. Army is in trouble. The troops and young leaders are great. But too often the senior brass are politically correct dilettantes, out of touch with their soldiers more interested in chin straps on the points of chin than in battle-drill being executed correctly. They don't understand that everything they need to learn about leadership and combat savvy doesn't come from management books or advanced degrees.

The CEO managers started taking over from the warrior leaders during the Korean War. Slowly, the Alexander Haigs and Bernard Rogers replaced the Hank Emersons and James Hollingsworths. The "slick and quick" replaced the warriors who knew how to win wars and inspire soldiers because they'd spent most of their careers down in the dirt learning their trade the hard, old-fashioned way. Instead, with the Perfumed Princes, connections and the right punches on the career ticket have become more important than troop leading skills and inspiring soldiers by example and tough love.

Looks like somebody on high finally got Clark's number and sacked him. Let's hope -- for our country's security and for the welfare of our soldiers -- that the new Army leadership team that just took over gets rid of the "Perfumed Princes" and the culture that's created them. And returns warrior leaders to the top positions.

WND
Col. David H. Hackworth
8/13/99
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WND 8/5/99
Col. David H. Hackworth If any top commander ever says something political that goes against policy, then he is sure to be slapped down. And that leads us to what recently happened to Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO supreme commander.

Well, he's not supreme for long.

It appears that Gen. Clark did something rather foolish last month when he testified before a Senate committee about the Russians capturing Pristina airport. When asked why he'd been caught off guard by the Russian march on Pristina, Clark replied that he hadn't been caught off guard. According to Clark, a [higher authority] had purposely allowed Pristina to fall to the Russians.

Uh oh. This was a naughty thing to have said. Everybody knows that only one authority stands higher than a four star general. It's not nice to imply that the president was to blame for the most embarrassing debacle of the Balkan campaign. Obviously, this could not go unpunished. So it wasn't surprising when President Clinton retaliated by cutting short General Clark's term as supreme NATO commander by two months.

Worse yet, a story was leaked to Newsweek suggesting that Clark had risked World War III by ordering an air assault to grab Pristina before the Russians could reach it. Clark's subordinate, British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, refused to carry out the order.

So now Gen. Clark -- who was Clinton's dromedary in NATO -- is now Clinton's whipping boy. From henceforth Clark is to be depicted as an irresponsible warmonger who almost unleashed a global holocaust.

What a wonderful twist. The president pushes NATO into an act of aggression against a Slavic country. He enrages the Russian people, he enables Russia to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, he uses up precious cruise missiles bombing a country that has no significance for our national security, then he allows the Russians to capture the most significant facility in the contested province. When this is pointed out by Gen. Clark -- bang, crash, kaboom. Smoke curls up from a smoldering Clark.