General Wesley Clark on KARN's "First News" with Bob Steel

July 16, 2007 | Transcription by Melange

Bob Steel: On the Lifeline with us is former general…well, you’re never a former general – it’s General Wesley Clark. He was the commander, I think we all know, of the operation Allied Force in the Kosovo war and the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, a candidate for the president of the United States and he’s been an outspoken critic of the way we’ve conducted this war. Good morning General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good morning Bob.

Bob Steel: Well tell me…uh, we didn’t make uh, we didn’t score so well on the benchmarks. If I get 8 out of 18 on a test, I’m probably failing that test. Um, and now we’re seeing some very prominent Republicans – John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana calling for a different kind of strategy, restricting the troops, I think, to fighting just the terrorists and we’re getting all kinds of ideas from all kinds of people about this war. Where do you think we are in this war and what do you see as the future?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well I think we’re in a very very difficult position in the conflict. Obviously our troops are doing a great job over there in the mission they’ve been assigned but they are not going to succeed in this mission without the requisite diplomatic and political efforts in the region, including discussions and dialogue with Syria and Iran as well as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and so forth. And, this is what the administration has consistently refused to do. So we’ve got to take Iran out through diplomacy. I believe it can be done. If we do that, I think we’ll see a decline in the violence and I think it’s still not too late to expect that Iraq may hold together and you may actually get some stable government. It won’t be any kind of a democracy that…that we recognize and it certainly won’t have our standards of rights and freedoms but it could stop the violence. If we don’t discuss the situation and bring in the neighbors – whether we like them and approve of them or not – what we’re going to see is continuing violence. It’s their home court advantage. They’ve got the advantage on us despite all our technology and the courage of our fighters. It’s not enough; you cannot win it militarily. So that’s what the Congress has recognized and that’s what the administration really doesn’t want to admit.

Bob Steel: Well, in fact the President has said that we need to wait until September and give General Petraeus a full chance here and await his report. But one of the things that struck me was reading my paper over the weekend and seeing that the Iraqis are going to take vacation in August and we’re right here in the middle of trying to implement a policy with the Iraqi government on vacation.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well you see it’s actually even worse than that because you see when the President says ‘give General Petraeus a chance,’ General Petraeus is a military man. There’s a US Ambassador over there who’s in charge. And he’s in charge of the diplomacy and the politics. I don’t hear the President talking about Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Why don’t we give Ambassador Crocker a chance? Why don’t we give the people of Iraq a chance? This is not a war that can be won with military force but you can lose it militarily, certainly. But you cannot win it without adequate diplomacy and politics.

Bob Steel: You mentioned Iran a moment ago and today the Guardian newspaper in Britain is reporting that the thinking in the White House, pushed very heavily now by Vice President Dick Cheney, has shifted back in favor of military action against Iran.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yes, I saw that. This is…this is Cheney playing the game. He’s waited out the diplomacy. But here’s what you have to understand, Bob and our listeners – this administration hasn’t seriously tried diplomacy because we haven’t talked to Iran. Now, I’m a military man and I’m the only commander who’s ever won an air campaign against the Serbs in 1999…

Bob Steel: Yes, I remember that and we didn’t lose a single American life.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: …and we didn’t do it with bombing alone. You had to use diplomacy. So, when we talk about bombing Iran, where’s the diplomacy that goes with that? This administration doesn’t want to talk to Iran. You’ll have to ask them to explain why. I’ve tried. I can’t get an answer. They simply say they don’t have enough leverage and here we are, the most powerful country in the world, we’re the driving force of the world economy, our voice is not in control but certainly the strongest voice in almost every international institution. What Iran wants is legitimation. They want recognition from the United States. If you look at all those populations in the region, the most pro-American population is the population of Iran. Now a few bombs can change that and if we want to make enemies of those 75 million people, we can. What they have is a very nationalistic, hard line government and what we don’t want to do is feed into their extremist views.

Bob Steel: Well and they have a crazy leader, don’t they?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: "Crazy" in the sense of he’s an extremist and he’s using some extremist rhetoric to strengthen his domestic political position. Remember he was elected. Iran is – maybe not by our standards, but by their standards - it’s a democracy and he’s playing to the extreme. So when he criticizes President Bush makes President Bush stronger. And when President Bush criticizes President Ahmedinejad, it makes Ahmedinejad stronger.

Bob Steel: Does Iran have nuclear capabilities?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, they have long-range missiles right now. Missiles long enough, long-range enough to strike let’s say Israel and some…Turkey and maybe some of the Greek Islands…um, and certainly across into Saudi Arabia. They don’t have a nuclear warhead yet, so far as we know but they do have the capacity to begin enriching uranium.

Bob Steel: Alright General, I’m out of time for you but I wish I had an hour. Thank you very much for yours.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Very good to be with you, Bob. Thank you.