General Wesley Clark on Your World with Neil Cavuto
August 9, 2006
Transcript by Reg NYC
Neil Cavuto: Alright well, Israel has already made a change at the top of it's military command just as it seems poised now to broaden the ground war. Smart move or is it risky timing? Who better to ask than retired General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander? General, lots to talk to you about. First, on the ground offensive, what do you think?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think Israel's getting ready to put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and if the guy who was the Commander of the Northern Command didn't want to do that or didn't know how to do that or maybe he lost confidence, or maybe they got another mission for him, don't know. That's all internal business, but I know this, that you've got to have a Commander who believes in the strategy, and you got to back him. You got to give him the resources, and then you hold him accountable. If it doesn't work-
Neil Cavuto: Are you saying that Israel botched it prior?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: If it didn't work, then you got to revise the strategy. Well, it's been four weeks, and I think that the, the sentiment coming out that I read in the press and occasionally I hear from some of my friends over there is that people are getting concerned. This is taking a long time, and you know, Israel has had, has got a great Armed Forces. They've got great leadership. They've got great soldiers. They've got great equipment. Let's get the job done. (inaudible)
Neil Cavuto: Do you think Israel seriously underestimated the strength of Hezbullah?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's not clear. I'm sure there's going to be a long series of investigations, and we'll probably read a lot of it in the American press after this. But I don know this: I, I'm, I was a Commander of an air campaign, and when you rely on air power, you've got to really understand how you're using the air power to achieve your objective. And you have to use diplomacy to back up the air power. In this case, it wasn't clear to me on the outside how the air campaign related to the overall objectives. I heard statements, but ultimately war is settled by political means.
Neil Cavuto: But you didn't have what Israel's dealing with right now, the bad guys hiding out-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That was-
Neil Cavuto: -or doing something in regular citizens-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No. We had a guy, we had a guy in Slobodan Milosevic that we knew was a rational, calculating man that if you posed to him an insuperable obstacle, he would back away from it. And all we had to do was gain escalation dominance in the air campaign and threaten the ground campaign, and he basically conceded.
Neil Cavuto: But Israel hasn't been pussyfooting here.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, Israel hasn't been pussyfooting, but they, they're not dealing with the same kind of decision maker on the other side. In fact, one of the problems is it's not clear who they're dealing with.
Neil Cavuto: Well let's say that Nesrallah is not their Milosevic. Maybe this guy is a little crazier.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's not clear who- It's not clear who the decision maker is.
Neil Cavuto: Who do you think it is?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I mean, it could be Nesrallah. I think there are a lot of connections to elements in the Iranian government. Exactly what those connections are, we don't know, at least we don't know publicly what they are. So-
Neil Cavuto: So, we're all focused on Nesrallah, but you're saying that it's possible that someone in Iran is calling all the shots.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, we know that Hizbullah has been armed and it, it, it's the, it's the reach of Iran toward a Mediterranean beach head. And that's what it's there for. So, it, it's troublesome. It's troublesome throughout the region, but to, to go against it requires a combination of military power and diplomacy.
Neil Cavuto: Alright. General, always good seeing you.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.
Neil Cavuto: General Wesley Clark.
