General
Clarke a sound-byte hypocrite
Gerry
Wachovsky
Strong
rhetoric in the aftermath [of Sept. 11]
is no substitute for wise leadership,"
retired general and presidential-hopeful
Wesley Clark said as he criticized President
Bush last Tuesday at a conference titled
'New American Strategies for Security and
Peace,' according to The Associated Press.
It seems that Wesley is quite a forgetful
fellow. Eh, maybe that is too harsh; perhaps
he is just confused. Whatever the case may
be, one thing is for sure -- this man cannot
become our next president.
Guess
who said the following at a May 11, 2001,
GOP dinner: "I'm very glad we've got
the great team in office, men like Colin
Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza
Rice...people I know very well -- our president
George W. Bush. We need them there."
If you said Wesley Clark, you would be correct.
Confusing, isn't it? What is the deal with
Clark's 180-degree political turnaround?
Did Clark suddenly have a "moment of
clarity" and realize he is a Democrat,
as did Jules Winnfield, Samuel L. Jackson's
character in Pulp Fiction, when he decided
to leave the life of a hit man? Hardly.
It is not only bizarre how contradictory
this man is, but amazing to me that so many
young people are supporting him, clueless
as to his past history and verbal gaffes.
Clearly, Clark is simply trying to win votes
and appeal to the crowd by telling them
what they want to hear.
Take,
for example, what Clark told CNN's Miles
O'Brien back in January. According to various
sources, including www.fair.org (which prides
itself on "fairness and accuracy in
reporting") and www.indymedia.org (a
premiere and extremely liberal "alternative
news source"), Clark told O'Brien that
Saddam Hussein "does have weapons of
mass destruction." O'Brien followed
up that assertion by asking Clark if he
could "say that categorically,"
which Clark responded with a firm "Absolutely."
Amazing how Clark, now the anti-war poster-boy
for the Democrats, would say something like
that less than a year ago. In yet another
SNAFU, when asked by CNN's Paula Zahn if
he had any doubts about finding the weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq, Clark responded,
"I think they will be found. There's
so much intelligence on this."
Another
interesting and somewhat disturbing incident
involving the presidential-hopeful took
place in 1994 during the Bosnian civil war,
according to another prominent liberal "alternative
news source," www.pacificnews.org.
Clark, who, at the time, "was a three-star
general and head of operations at the Pentagon,"
met with Serbian general Ratko Mladic in
the town of Banja Luka, where the two exchanged
hats and posed for several Kodak moments.
Mladic, who PacificNews describes as "the
Osama of the Balkans," was "indicted
for war crimes in 1995," and currently
"is a fugitive with a $5 million U.S.
price on his head."
Ironic
how there is no public outcry against the
presidential-hopeful who, eight-years-ago,
cavorted with a man responsible for killing
"more than 7,000 Muslims in eastern
Bosnia," while President Bush gets
lambasted for trying to protect his own
country's citizens. According to Gen. Michael
Rose, the British U.N. commander responsible
for Mladic and Clark's get-together, and
in his book "Fighting For Peace,"
Clark received a small token of appreciation
from the Serbian general: a pistol engraved
with the phrase, "From Gen. Mladic."
One can only imagine the gifts Clark would
accept as president. Berets, courtesy of
Saddam Hussein? Dirty bombs containing biological
agents from al Qaeda?
If
this short exposé has not yet changed
your mind on endorsing Wesley Clark's presidential
candidacy, let me present what a retired
four-star general recently told The Washington
Post: "There are an awful lot of people
who believe Wes will tell anybody what they
want to hear and tell somebody the exact
opposite five minutes later." At the
least, consider this before placing your
2004 vote for Wesley "Faux Pas"
Clark.
Gerry
Wachovsky is a broadcast journalism major
at Cal State Long Beach and can be reached
at SenorBucho@aol.com.
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