General Wesley Clark on Fox News
November 1, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

Gretchen Carlson...Fallout from his controversial comments.

Steve Doocy: Right now, let's talk to a Democrat, Fox News military analyst General Wesley Clark joins us from Little Rock, Arkansas. Good morning to you, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hey Steve, how are you this morning?

Steve Doocy: I'm fine. You wore the uniform with honor for many, many years. John Kerry's comments where 'If you study hard, you get ahead in this life, and if you don't, you're going to wind up in Iraq,' - so many have said it's such an insult to the men and women who serve our country proudly. What do you say?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I say John Kerry probably tried to, maybe he thought he was going to give a joke or something, but he, he screwed up. It was a bad comment. But on the other hand, I don't know why there's so much focus on it, because the truth is John Kerry's not standing for election. John Kerry's not in charge of anything right now. He's just out there, and there's so many other issues, Steve. Peop- the American people are deeply concerned about what's in Iraq. I, I was on the phone yesterday with a couple of my old military buddies. They're headed back into Iraq on their second tours, one of them on their third tour-

Steve Doocy: Mm hm.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -I guess, and you know, we, the, the unit that's going back has just lost its first soldier to an improvised explosive device. They've been in the country two or three weeks. I mean, it's a very tough environment for our troops. They need the best leadership.

Steve Doocy: Hm mm.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: They need the best policies. Now, I think right now the American people are very- the, the people are scratching their heads, they're saying 'Nobody wants to lose in Iraq but-

Steve Doocy: Absolutely, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: - but where are we going?

Steve Doocy: Absolutely, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Where are we going with this policy?'

Steve Doocy: Exactly right, and people also, General, say, 'Well why doesn't he just apologize?'
Gretchen Carlson: Exactly.

Steve Doocy: And instead he's gone into hiding.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don't, I, I- you know, that's up to John Kerry, but you know, for us, for the American people, what they're looking for is they're looking for some answers. They're looking for an understanding - how did we get here and, and how do we get out of this, because we love our men and women in uniform. They've been, they've been really doing everything we've asked them to do. They've made tremendous sacrifices.

Steve Doocy: Absolutely. Yes, indeed.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: But the thing is we're not succeeding in Iraq. We're in a spiral toward failure, and Steve Hadley, the President's National Security Advisor made a secret trip over there. He's been trying to straighten out the political situation. Prime Minister Maliki apparently got tired of our stopping cars, looking for our missing soldier in Sadr City. He, he basically called in General Casey and said, "Stop those roadblocks." I mean, okay, it's their country, but that's our soldier.
Gretchen Carlson; But general, if John Kerry-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And there are a lot of issues here.
Gretchen Carlson: You say there are a lot of other issues there, but if John Kerry would have just simply apologized, would the story have not gone away a lot quicker?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I-
Gretchen Carlson: By the fact that he's not apologizing, he's calling more attention to it.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You know, I just don't know. I think that, I think the real issue here, in this election, it is about our foreign policy, because if you look at where we've gone - it's not about the personalities - if you look at where we've gone since 9/11, when we had to go into Afghanistan, we've now got NATO in charge.

Steve Doocy: Right. Gotcha

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And the NATO commanders over there are warning-

Steve Doocy: Right.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -that we're in trouble.

Steve Doocy: Right.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Iraq is in trouble. North Korea, okay they're going to come back and talk, but it's trouble.

Steve Doocy: General-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think the American people are looking for leaders with answers who are standing for election now.

Steve Doocy: General Wesley Clark, we thank you very much for joining us this morning from Little Rock.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.