General Wesley Clark on the Ed Schultz Show

January 26, 2006
Transcript by Melange

We encourage you to listen to the clip.

Ed Schultz: Joining us right now, the great general, Wesley Clark. General, great to have you on the program.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Ed, it's great to be here.

Ed Schultz: I want to thank you for www.securingamerica.com and your support of this program and getting us on Armed Forces Network…Radio. We're getting, you know - this is new for us, we're getting e-mails from all over the world. It's kind of a cool deal.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's fabulous.

Ed Schultz:

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: God, that's wonderful, Ed. You know, I think this dialogue is so important. I think it's so great that our young men and women in uniform and their families can hear both sides of the issues. Because they're out on the front lines fighting to protect our democracy. They need to, they need to…to feel what it's all about.

Ed Schultz: And, I've gotten a few e-mails returned back and forth from this guy in Japan. I want to know if their sushi is as good as it's cracked up to be so we're really working on stuff here.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good.

Ed Schultz: Alright, General - you're down in Texas, what's happening down there?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I'm down here for a guy named Bob Gammage. Bob's running for Governor. And, Bob's a fella about my age. He's a lawyer. He's been….he's probably one of the most experienced guys we've ever had in government and he wants to be Governor. He was in the legislature back in the early 70's and he was one of the group that ended corruption in the state house and in the legislature in Texas. He was a legislator in the state House of Representatives. He was in the Texas Senate. He was an appeals court judge. He was elected to the Texas Supreme Court. He's been in the United States Congress. He's been a practicing lawyer all his life and he's just retired from, really from the practice of law. He's running for Governor. I think he's a great guy. I think he's the kind of guy who can really help the people of Texas.

Ed Schultz: Where is he standing in this Kinky Friedman deal thing? Is he showing in the polls? Where does he…where does your friend stand right now?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Oh, he's doing fine right now in the polls. We're not watching polls. We're talking about the issues.

Ed Schultz: Sure.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And I'm also down here talking about Juan Garcia. Juan's a young guy. He got out of the Navy - he was a naval aviator. He was a white House Fellow. He's running for the Texas House and he's... I just think he's a terrific American.

Ed Schultz: General Wesley Clark here with us on the Ed Schultz show. General, a couple of issues - let's talk about the Middle East. What do you make of the landslide of Hamas in the parliamentary elections? I mean, uh, here we take a bunch of people who hate Jews, they hate Israel, uh, they hate America. You give them a chance to vote and now look what we've got. What does this do in the Middle East? Are you nervous about this?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think it's a reflection of George Bush's overall policy. You know, if you divide people, then the extremes take over. What you must do is work to bring people together. And that's a responsibility that falls especially heavily on the President of the United States. He's the leader of the free world and he's the leader of the most powerful nation in the world and uh, and the policies we've followed in the Middle East haven't brought people together.

Ed Schultz: Does this

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: …they've divided people.

Ed Schultz: Does this election, uh, really put Mideast peacemaking really in a state of turmoil? Can we go that far or what?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I…I, I wouldn't go that far. What I would say is that this reflects the reality that we've understood for a long time. That the Palestinian people have been traumatized and radicalized by the leadership, first, of Yasser Arafat, the hardship he put them through, and second Intifada and the terrorists among them and they've elected this group and this group's got to decide. I mean, we can't have political dialogue when people don't acknowledge their opponent's right to exist.

Ed Schultz: And, do you think that will change?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And, that's a real problem. I don't know. I don't know. I think there's a chance it could change. I think it's up to the United States to make it change. But, you know, we haven't had a dialogue with Iran. We're talking about taking it to the UN, we're talking about having a crisis with Iran on nuclear weapons and yet, we don't have a dialogue. How can that be?

Ed Schultz: Well, we, we did outsource it to the Germans and the French and the European, you know

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We outsourced it to duck responsibility, in my view. If we really wanted those negotiations to succeed, we'd have been there.

Ed Schultz: And, what do you think our position for Iran should be right now?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think we should be doing everything that we can to persuade Iran that they need to not develop nuclear weapons. I think there has to be consideration of a military option but, you know, if you're talking about a military option, you've got to talk not only about bombing and special forces operations and things; you've got to talk about what the end state is. And, that's the very troubling prospect.

Ed Schultz: Do you think the Russians could be a real solution in this?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I hope the Russians would be a solution but if Russia is a solution, Russia will be a solution to serve its own interests, not our interests. So, without our active engagement, without our participation and dialogue in the problem in a more direct and forthcoming way, I'm not optimistic that this will get resolved in a way that suits our own interests and protects us.

Ed Schultz: General Wesley Clark with us here on the Ed Schultz show. General, um, General George Casey has come out and said that the forces are “stretched” and he says that he doesn't think there's any question about that. What does the term “stretched” mean in….in military dialogue? When you say the military is “stretched”, what does that mean?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We're talking about things…looking at a rubber band that's stretched; when you look at a rubber band, you never know how far you can stretch it but if you stretch it too far, it breaks. What…when we say “stretched”, we're talking about warning. This is saying you're under stress. You're warning. This is not a normal situation. This is not a long-term, steady-state, sustainable situation for the armed forces Not that…

Ed Schultz: And… yes sir, and that report from that retired military officer, he was commissioned by the Pentagon to write this report. He came back and said that we can't sustain this, it's an over-sized mission for the capability that we have. Yet here's Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday saying that it doesn't match up, that it's not consistent with the facts. What are the American people supposed to believe?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well I think the American people recognize what a tremendous sacrifice the men and women in the armed forces are making and the burden is on them and their families. I think the American people recognize that and that's why they're determined to see us pull down that troop level in Iraq.

Ed Schultz: General, it's great to have you on the program. Best of luck to your candidate down in Texas and thanks again for all your help for getting us on…

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thanks a lot, Ed.

Ed Schultz: You bet, and that website again is…Wesley Clark doing some great things for America. It's www.securingamerica.com.