General Wesley Clark on Fox News

April 14, 2007
transcript by Melange

Jamie Colby: Insurgents are changing their tactics as coalition forces crack down in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rebels now using chlorine tanker attacks and brutal bridge bombings these days to help beat and stay ahead of the terrorists. The White House may bring a new person on board, someone to oversee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a so-called Terror Czar. I'm joined now by Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and a Fox News contributor. And I know what you're going to say, General. You're going to say we already have somebody that does that job.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Absolutely right. I mean, it goes by...it's by law. There's a re...there's a regional commander, he's called the Combatant Commander, it's Admiral Bill Fallon who reports to the Secretary of Defense who reports to the President. That's the chain of command. You can't put somebody else in there unless they're under the Combatant Commander.

Jamie Colby: But with all the questions now about this particular war, why would it be wrong maybe to have an extra set of eyes?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, you can have as many staff assistants as you want but there's lots of ideas. The truth is that the military piece is a necessary but not sufficient component and most of us who've watched this from the very beginning and followed it very, very closely would tell you that the real failure has been the diplomatic failure in the region, not the failure of the military on the ground.

Jamie Colby: In the meantime, though, there are reports general, that there have been several retired generals that have been offered this position. Do you know about that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Oh, I do. And um, they're all friends of mine and they're very competent men. They'd do a wonderful job in any position that the government asked them to serve in. But they've apparently declined this position because they recognize that it's not a real position. All you'd be is a staff assistant. You'd be somebody who could go out there and make a public statement about it. In other words, it'd be a political job. You'd be making public statements to take the heat off the President but you wouldn't be in the position to really make a difference to the policy or to the actions on the ground. All of that has to go through the chain of command and you can't be in the chain of command.

Jamie Colby: I want to ask you about this new tactic being used by insurgents, these bridge bombings. How significant is that, General?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think it's just another...it's more of the same. It's another area maybe that hasn't been guarded adequately, it's one more means of capturing public attention. This is a war that's not only fought against the people in Iraq, it's also fought for public attention around the world and these bombings capture attention because they're different.

Jamie Colby: Then are you saying then that the media should not be giving as much attention to it?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well I think the media gives attention to it because it reflects the failure of the policy on the ground to work effectively. What we've said is that we're going to improve the security in Baghdad and these bombings illustrate that that's a very tough thing to do. So yes, it is newsworthy, but we also have to understand that this is a very long-term problem in Iraq. It's only going to be solved when the political leaders who control the factions that are fighting decide they've got more to gain by compromise than by continuing combat. They haven't decided that, it's a political and diplomatic issue first and then it has a military component.

Jamie Colby: Certainly no shortage of opinions on how this war should be fought. So General, I asked you this question once before when we spoke, I guess I have to ask you again. Could we see you put your hat in the ring to run for president?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I haven't said I won't do that but I...I really do believe that we've got to get the American people to focus on the fact that this conflict in Iraq is part of a regional struggle – that it's got to be waged by diplomatic means, that you cannot simply isolate adversaries. We need to be talking to Syria and Iran.

Jamie Colby: Alright sir, great to see you. General Wesley Clark, thank you very much.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.