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3/24/08 - General Wesley Clark on Tavis Smiley

General Wesley Clark on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

March 24, 2008
Transcript by Reg NYC

Tavis Smiley: General Wesley Clark served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander from 1997 to 2000 and then went on to seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2004. His most recent book is A Time To Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country. He joins us tonight from New York. General Clark, nice to have you back on the program, Sir.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Tavis. Nice to be with you.

Tavis Smiley: Let me go right at it. What do you make of the fact that we've been there five years now and as of Easter Sunday, 4000 dead?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, first of all, my heart goes out to the families and to the men and women in uniform who have volunteered and served in this country and done it so courageously. It's just a terrible burden we're putting on the men and women in the Armed Forces and their families, and I think about them first. No one would've believed, Tavis, that if we had said five years ago that five years later we'd have more troops in Iraq then we did to do the invasion AND that we'd have lost 4000 fine young men and women, no one would've believed it. It's been a war we didn't have to fight. It's been a war that's been mismanaged. The- been an excessive and over-reliant on the military, a lack of good policy in the region. We've alienated our friends around the world, and we've served as a cause for Al Qaeda recruiting. And the, the real winner of the war is, so far, has been Iran.

7/16/07 - General Wesley Clark on KARN's "First News" with Bob Steel

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

July 16, 2007
We encourage you to listen to the clip

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.

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6/26/07 - General Wesley Clark on the Stephanie Miller Show

General Wesley Clark on the Stephanie Miller Show

June 26, 2007
We encourage you to listen to the clip

General Wesley Clark on the Stephanie Miller Show

June 26, 2007
transcript by Reg NYC

Stephanie Miller: Speaking of MSNBC, if only someone, someone from MSNBC could call (laughs) that has formerly been trapped in right-wing world on Fox News like I have every now and again.

(phone rings)

Stephanie Miller: r: Someone like that. Chris, who is it.

Chris: General Wesley Clark.

(phone rings)

Stephanie Miller: What? No Way!

(trumpets)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hello?

Stephanie Miller: Good morning, General Clark. (laughs)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good morning. How you doing?

Stephanie Miller: I'm, I am so happy to hear from you, and I'm so happy you're out of Fox News. I mean-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm-

Stephanie Miller: You've been in enemy territory before, sir, but-