General Wesley Clark at the Real Security Press Conference
Full text of remarks by General Wesley Clark

September 5, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

Well, Senator Reid, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today and to be with your colleagues.

Of course, I'm not in elected office. I spent 38 years in uniform. I fought in Vietnam, came home on a stretcher, stayed on in uniform to help rebuild the American Army and to help make national security policy. I've helped negotiate peace agreements. I've lead alliance military forces in successful military campaigns. So, I've got a background in diplomacy, war and the use of military force, and it's from that basis that I'd like to speak today.

In plain language, invading Iraq was a mistake, a strategic blunder, a step- a major step in the wrong direction for winning the War on Terror. It's time for America to face the facts. Invading Iraq was an unnecessary war. It distracted us from what we were trying to accomplish in Afghanistan, and it's been counterproductive in winning the War on Terror.

Today, as a result of failed administration American policies, we've lost over 2600 soldiers and marines in Iraq. We've spent over 300 billion dollars with maybe a trillion or more on the line. We've seriously damaged our Armed Forces. You can read about it all in this great report from Third Way. But we're bogged down there. We've reduced our diplomatic leverage around the world. And despite all the trumpeting of patriotism by this administration, this administration and the Republican leadership in the Congress have weakened our country and made Americans less safe at home. Those are the facts, and we need to face them as Americans.

We need a change in course, and that's got to start with a change in the leadership in Congress. I believe the leaders that you see here, in the United States Congress and the others will help put us on the right course for success in the War on Terror. They know that to win you've got to make more friends than enemies in the world. They know that you've got to strengthen relations with other countries, that you've got to talk to people you don't necessarily agree with and that you've got to use all the elements of military power AND America's diplomatic strength and international law and law enforcement, bringing it all together to succeed in the War on Terrorism. They're not soft. They're tough-minded, and they're determined to win.

And by the way, these are also the leaders that we need to succeed in curbing the threat of nuclear proliferation. We've heard the Bush administration talk, now, for three years about Iran and North Korea, but they won't talk directly to them. What I hear is the beating tom-toms of another military action taking form against Iran, and I think it's time that the American government step forward and talk to people we disagree with before we start dropping bombs on them.

We need to rebuild our Armed Forces. We've suffered losses in Iraq, but we've ripped apart the materiel, and we've really hurt the morale of the family structure that's critical in the Armed Forces of the United States. Our men and women in uniform have done a terrific job. They're great people and they're sucking it up, but they need help from our government and from our government's leaders, and they're not getting that help today.

And finally, we need leadership in this Congress that will help us face up to the long-tern challenges of competition in a global economy. You can't win that competition by trumpeting patriotism and military power alone. So, I'm convinced that the Democratic Party and the leaders here are the best able to do this.

And I want to make a special plea to my fellow believers in U.S. national security - our veterans, our policy analysts, the men and women associated with the Armed Forces because their spouses or their children or their fathers are involved in this. We've dedicated over thirty years since Vietnam to rebuilding our Armed Forces. We created a whole strengthened culture of national security, and I'm calling on those people today and my fellow retirees from the Armed Forces to lay aside the prejudices of the Vietnam era and face the facts. The war in Iraq was a mistake. The policies that this administration has trumpeted haven't worked. It's time to change the course, and to do that, we must have a change in leadership that starts in 2006.

Thank you.