Shea-Porter, Clark blast Bush on Iraq policy
October 21, 2006
By JOHN DISTASOE | Senior Political Reporter | Manchester Union Leader
Manchester – Former NATO Commander Wesley Clark joined Democratic 1st District U.S. House candidate Carol Shea-Porter yesterday in denouncing the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy, particularly its handling of the Iraq war.
Clark said Bush has "brought us to the brink of disaster." He called for a reversal of Bush's policy of not talking to enemies.
The retired four-star general finished third in the 2004 Democratic Presidential primary. Shea-Porter backed his bid, and he returned yesterday to rally support for her challenge to Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley on Nov. 7. He told about 40 Shea-Porter supporters at the American Legion Henry J. Sweeney post in Manchester she is a "pragmatic, problem-solver" who will be a strong member of the Congress.
Clark, who also attended events for Democratic activists in Goffstown, Concord and Portsmouth, was noncommittal on whether he will run for President again in 2008.
"I haven't said I won't" be a candidate, he told reporters.
For now, he said, he has been traveling the country to raise money and support for Democrats. He said a Democratic Congress would "stand up and ask the tough questions, demand accountability by the executive branch and understand what the evidence is, the difference between the truth and a lie, and know that good government is about competence."
Clark and Shea-Porter called for direct negotiations between the United States and the governments of Iran and North Korea.
He stressed he does not favor talks with the terrorist group al-Qaida, and "I've never heard a single Democrat ever suggest a negotiation with al-Qaida. Not one. Not ever."
But rather than treat al-Qaida terrorists as wartime enemies, "They should be arrested and brought to trial," Clark said, "with accepted standards of jurisprudence, in front of the whole world, to lay out their crimes."
Clark he said that even during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. kept an embassy open in Moscow and Presidents met directly with Soviet premiers.
"This is some new fabrication of American policy that we won't talk to people we disagree with," Clark said. "Are we too weak to talk to them? Are we afraid that we might not prevail with our principles? It's time for the United States of America to show leadership."
He asked rhetorically why the Bush administration has decided to "outsource" negotiations with North Korea and Iran to China and Europe, respectively.
"There is no good reason for it," he said. "This administration is blind to the realities of the world we live in."
Clark said he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, saying, "The greatest gift we could have given Osama bin Laden was to invade Iraq ... It helped him recruit and train a new generation of fanatics. The number of terrorists has increased by two and a half times since 9/11.
"There is no terrorist gene," Clark said. "People are not born as terrorists. They become that way and we don't want to feed the recruiting process."
Shea-Porter wants the U.S. to leave Iraq within six months and "redeploy the troops in the region to countries that will have us.
"We are the party that recognizes we have to change course," she said. "The only way you could look in a soldier's eyes and send him or her to this kind of mission is if you could say at that moment, What you are doing is so essential to the freedom of the United States and the freedom of the world and your mission is so clear that there is no other way to go except to get on that plane and serve us.'
"And I could not say that," she said. "I could not say that mission was clear and worth it."
Clark did not propose a timetable for withdrawal.
He called for direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, for "working inside Iraq politically," and using the military "to train and provide security and provide political leverage for a solution to the problem.
"There may well be a time line that emerges from this," he said, "but we won't know if we won't get the region together and talk.'
He said Congress, under Democratic control, will "express its intent" to Bush that "there is no course to stay."
Shea-Porter said she would not vote to block funding for the war as long as troops are stationed in Iraq, "but we can change the dialogue and be very, very vociferous. This Congress has just been validating whatever the President wants."
She said that while the GOP sends troops to an unnecessary war, it also is "cutting back their benefits, sending them there without the equipment, and harming them, making these families eligible for good stamps. That is a moral outrage. "
