November 7, 2005
Transcript by Reg NYC
We encourage you to listen to the clip and be sure to check out Ed's show, you will be glad you did.
Ed Schultz: Joining us on the program now is General Wesley Clark. General, a big thank you from this host to you. I appreciate it.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well Ed, a big congratulations from me to you. I'm just so proud of you and so pleased that you're going to be on there so our soldiers can get both sides of the news.
Ed Schultz: Well, uh...
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And thanks for sticking with it and fighting the good fight.
Ed Schultz: Well, with your help. securingamerica.com is General Clark's website, and he had, on his WesPAC, he had people sign a petition, and they got over 25,000 folks to sign this petition to get our show on Armed Forces Radio Network. And General, I didn't ask you for that support. It- it- it just came out of nowhere, and I owe you a big thank you, and out listeners do too. I mean, I appreciate the fact, and I know they do, that you're fighting for freedom of speech now that you're not in uniform every day.
(General Clark is disconnected for a moment)
Ed Schultz: Hey, I didn't cut you off! I'm for freedom of speech! Ha, ha, ha!
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Ha, ha, I know. I'm sorry, I'm driving in a car right here, and it's just going in and out on me. But I just want to say again that, you know, I think we're all in favor of freedom of speech, and I think you aught to have two sides of a view at least. And it's just wrong for Armed Forces Radio to have gotten away with presenting only one side of the news.
Ed Schultz: Well and I think a lot of Americans didn't know it was like that until it was brought to the attention of them. I mean, a lot of the listeners of this program said, "Well we really haven't been paying attention to that." I think that liberals and progressives have got an image problem with the military, General, because of what they've been told for so many years. Am I off base on that?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think you're going to have some skeptical members of the military that listen to you. You'll have a lot of people in there. By the way, there's a lot of people in the military who are not, you know, Rush Limbaugh fans, but they don't have the other side (inaudible) enough to discuss the issue. But you'll have some of the Rush fans in there who will be skeptical at first. I think it's a matter of, you know, having people listen to the facts. When the facts are out there you let them make their own mind up. The problem we've had is the facts haven't been there.
Ed Schultz: Who could be against veterans' benefits?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Exactly.
Ed Schultz: Who could be against the proper armor? (laughs)
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: But, you see, Rush is not talking about the administration's failures to take care of our veterans or equip our soldiers properly.
Ed Schultz: I totally agree
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: He's just raging on about his own ideological pretensions there, and that's why it's very important to have two sides of the news.
Ed Schultz: General Clark, I got to ask you, breaking story today, there's five soldiers from the 75th Ranger Regiment that have been accused of beating detainees in Iraq. The president just came out today saying, "We're not torturing anybody." Just generically speaking here, we better get this thing right pretty soon. Shouldn't we?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You know, any time you go to war, you have people who will exceed the bounds of appropriate contact, but what's different in this case is we have an administration that has apparently condoned it. I started seeing the indications of this when I began to hear our generals talk about they've not needed more troops in Iraq, they just needed more actionable intelligence. Of course, that's the idea that led to Abu Ghraib, but it wasn't just at Abu Ghraib. I think we're going to find this is pretty much- it's been a problem that's larger than just a few individuals, and it goes right up to the top of the chain of command, and I'm not talking about generals. I'm talking about civilians, because our military works for civilians.
Ed Schultz: What do you make of Vice-President Cheney so adamant about the fact that the president's got to have these special powers to deal with terrorists? I mean, what's wrong with just following the law?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think there's nothing wrong with it. It's the right course of action, and, you know, there's nothing to be gained that's worth the cost of abusing people if you were going to be strictly pragmatic about it, but more than that, it's un-American. General George Washington made a very strong pitch and made sure that the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War- We captured British soldiers. We did not abuse them. We treated them well, and as a result a lot of them stayed on after the war and became citizens of America. On the other hand, the British in the Revolutionary War treated our people when they were captured very, very badly, and they were repaid in spades for that with a long period of where we were very hostile to the Brits. You know, every time we've gone through a period where we don't watch how we treat and act in war we regret it. It is a huge blot on our nation's conscience, and to have an administration and a vice-president who is so strongly advocating a course of action that's basically un-American, unprincipled, not in accordance with what our American values are, it's a shocking, it's a shocking expression of a lack of faith in America and our own country. I'm very disturbed by it.
Ed Schultz: General Clark, I appreciate your time. Thanks for helping our listeners out and moving this progressive radio issue to the forefront, and I appreciate all the work on your website and WesPAC, and it's moving forward, and I appreciate it.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Alright. Hey, good luck to you. Keep it rolling there.
Ed Schultz: You bet. Wesley Clark with us, the General, here on the Ed Schultz Show.
