|
General Wesley Clark with Jay Marvin on 760AM Talk Radio
September 11, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC
Jay Marvin: Let's spend some time visiting with former Presidential Candidate, General Wesley Clark, who agreed to be on the program to talk about 9/11. He, of course, is a retired Four-Star General in the U.S. Army. He was America's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000 and is an investment banker and currently runs WesPAC. And this is what, this is what General Clark had to say. General, good morning and welcome to the show.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good morning. Thanks for having me today.
Jay Marvin: We're talking about the fifth anniversary of 9/11, and one of the things I want to ask is: Where were you when 9/11 happened?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I was in Little Rock, and I was headed to work, and I was trying to call someone in New York. And my first indication of a problem was about ten 'til eight in the morning in Little Rock, and I couldn't get my cell phone to work. It just, it just went into a black hole. And I got into the office, and someone had - we were up on the top floor of an office building in Little Rock - and someone had a TV on, and they said some plane had crashed into a building in New York. And I walked back to my office. I came back and looked at the TV a few minutes later and said, "Oh my God, another one." And I had signed on to CNN to be their military analyst in July, but I hadn't actually been called to be on the air, and I got called about thirty minutes later. And I spent most of the rest of the day in the TV studio.
Jay Marvin: And your impressions of that day.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, first I, I, I immediately believed it was Osama Bin Laden. Secondly, it wasn't clear how extensive the plot might be. Were there fifth, sixth, seventh airliners? Were there any other materials in the aircraft? For example that big cloud that enveloped Lower Manhattan, was it just the debris? Did it have some kind of toxic chemical in it? We didn't know any of those things, and we didn't know what was coming next. And so, there was a lot of uncertainty in, in my mind about whether this was the whole attack and we'd seen it all, or whether there was more to come.
Jay Marvin: Here we are now, five years later - and I know that we only have a short time together, because I know you're very, very busy this morning - but where do you think we stand five years later?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I'm glad we invaded Afghanistan, but we didn't put the resources or put the plan together to, to, to really do the job right. It was a throw-together job. We let Osama Bin Laden get away, and then we turned our attention away from Afghanistan and focused on the invasion of Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was not only unnecessary, it's complicated and made more difficult the war against the terrorists who attacked this country. Our Armed Forces are bogged down. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars. We've lost 20- over 2600 American service members over there. No telling how many Iraqis we've killed, and basically we've served the purposes, of the, of the terrorists in Iraq by serving as a, as a recruiting device. The whole world can see pictures of Americans engaged in combat in, in the Islamic world, and they're using that to recruit terrorists to come against us. The fact is that there are more people who are affiliated with Al Qaeda today than there were in 2001. There are more terrorist incidents than there were then. And so, we may have taken out some of the key people, and I'm delighted that at last we're going to put fourteen people on trial for terrorism. But the President's losing ground, because he's followed a counterproductive strategy.
Jay Marvin: If we turned around tomorrow and we said, 'Okay, we don't want you to run for President. We don't want you to be an investment banker. We don't want you to head this PAC that you have.' And we'll talk about that in a second but, 'what we want you to do is, we want you to take over the War on Terror. We want you to take over what's going on in Iraq,' what would you do?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, first of all, I'd ss-, I- I'd clearly separate the War on Terror from what's going on in Iraq. They are not directly related except that what we're doing in Iraq is making it more difficult to fight the War on Terror. So, we've got to find a way to handle our regional concerns in the Middle East. That means going after the Shiite militias in, in Baghdad. It means putting political pressure on the government to take charge and get violence under control. And it means having a dialog with Iraq's neighbors in the region - Iran and Syria, as well as Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and the others. So, that's the plan to get started in Iraq, and if we do that, I think we can begin - if we do it the right way - we can begin to start withdrawing some U.S. troops shortly. But in the War on Terror you got to make more friends than enemies in the world, and you have to use these states to help you, others, other countries. Look, Britain has to clamp down, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Morocco. We have to be leaders in the world in sharing information, in, in training law enforcement agencies. And the idea is first, you use intelligence and information gathering and law enforcement and military only as a last resort in the War on Terror. This is essentially an ideological struggle within Islam. We have friends within Islam. We should be reinforcing them. They don't agree with overthrowing governments in places like Saudi Arabia and, and Jordan. People basically support those governments. So, there's a hardcore of these people that want these governments overthrown and they're the ones that are attacking us. We need to, to make common cause with more countries and work with others more effectively.
Jay Marvin: Alright. Finally here before we run out of time, a couple of more questions. Talk to us about WesPAC and how those of us who are listening to you this morning can get involved with WesPAC.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, we're in the internet at www.securingamerica.com and I hope every listener will come in, check our site out. I'd like your support, because what I'm doing is I'm spending several days each week campaigning for candidates who are running for office in 2006. I think 2006 is the time to make a difference, and I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. I hope you'll vote in this election, because that's your duty as an American citizen and, and I think you should make sure you're registered and make sure your, you've studied the issues and you go to the polls ready to cast your ballot. But when you do that, I think you'll find that, the- there are a lot of great men and women running as Democrats who love this country. They're very patriotic. They have strong values, and they stand up for the little guy. And that's what the Democratic Party's been about - a strong America, and we're in it for everybody. We're all in this together, and we're going to make life better, and that's why I'm a Democrat.
Jay Marvin: Alright. Last question, I ask you this every time you're on. I've had you on once before.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs)
Jay Marvin: So, I don't want to make it like we're good friends and that you've been on here, you know, a thousand times. But when are we going to see, for those of us who are interested, When are, when are we going to see you're hat in, in the arena or the ring again? What are your upcoming plans and will you seek national office again?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I, I haven't said I won't run again, but right now I'm focused on 2006. I think it'd be a disservice for me to go out and campaign for myself at the expense of the men and women who are putting their whole lives on hold to, to run for public office this year.
Jay Marvin: I don't know, General. You and Mark Warner would be a pretty powerful combination, if you ask me.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I appreciate your saying that, but we'll just have to see. I, I want to help Democrats change the Congress in 2006. I know other people are out running right now for themselves, but I'm working for the candidates who have got their hats in the ring for this election this time. And you got some wonderful candidates in your area. I've been down to Colorado Springs. I've been in Boulder. And I just think the voters of Colorado have some great choices, and I hope they'll make the right decisions.
Jay Marvin: Thank you so much for joining us on, on, on this very, very solemn morning, and thank you for being so candid and open. And I look forward to having you on again. It's been a real honor, General.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Jay.
Jay Marvin: Alright, there's General Wesley Clark.
