On July 12, 2007, General Clark testified before the House Armed Services' Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee

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We encourage you to listen to the full subcommittee testimony. 35 MB | Transcript of the complete testimony available here.

Washington D.C.— On Thursday, July 12, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held the first in a series of hearings on alternatives for the future of Iraq. Witnesses were General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, Max Boot, a Senior Fellow in the National Security Studies program for the Council on Foreign Relations, and Dr. Muqtedar Khan, a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute.

Text of General Clark's prepared remarks:

Chairman Snyder, distinguished members of this subcommittee, it is an honor to come before you today to discuss Iraq and our future policy options there.

At the outset, though, I'd like to thank you for the attention and the support you've given to the men and women in uniform, and their families. Members of the Armed Services Committee have been assiduous in studying the needs and providing the necessary financial authority and guidance to have built the finest Armed Forces in the world, and a force which has represented your nation and served it courageously and well.

It's only proper, therefore, that this Subcommittee help ask and answer the hard questions to be asked concerning our over four years deployment in Iraq: whether it is "succeeding," and, if not, how the mission should be modified or curtailed, and at what cost.

These questions are in no way the material of abstract, hypothetical musings. Just about everyone in public life has now formed strong opinions, and certainly the American public has, also. By strong majorities they believe the war is unwinnable, and want the strategy changed. They also want the troops brought home - and taken good care of when they return here - but they don't want to lose. And so the public debate has increasingly turned on the consequences of a withdrawal for Iraq, our friends in the region, and for ourselves - with a "precipitous withdrawal" being the one which leads to increased violence.

You can receive the testimonies of the generals and state Department experts that can discuss every tribe, militia and province. I don't propose to do that today. But what I would like to do is offer my perspective on the region, and then propose a course of action which could prove to be the "least worst" of the choices available.

The United States is today engaged in a four-fold struggle in the Middle East, and each of the struggles is interconnected with the others. At the most benign level, the US is in hot competition economically, to capture its share of oil exports and earnings, and to sell its share of goods and services. Our long term dependability has been a winning factor in building enduring US influence and commercial penetration in the region. Second, the US works to assure to security and safety of the state of Israel, within the broader interest of seeking to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and helping Israel assure its long term survival and success within the region. Third, the United States is engaged in a three-decades long struggle against Iranian extremism, which has manifested itself through terror bombing against US forces, harassment of oil shipping lanes, the pursuit of a long range, nuclear strike capability, Iranian interference in Lebanon, and, of course, assisted by our topping of Saddam Hussein, within Iraq itself. Finally, the US is caught up in the almost ten-year-old struggle against Al Qaeda.

General Wesley Clark on the Diane Rehm Show

Military Strategy and the Debate Over the War in Iraq

July 12, 2007 | Transcription by Melange

President Bush is threatening to veto any attempts by members of Congress to set a date for withdrawal from Iraq "without regard to conditions on the ground or the recommendations of commanders." Diane and her guests talk about the military/strategic implications of proposals to abandon the strategy behind the "surge" and get U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Guests

Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander

Lawrence Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration

Kimberly Kagan, affiliate of the John M. Olin Institute of Strategic Studies at Harvard University and executive director of the Institute for the Study of War in Washington

Erik Swabb, former Marine infantry officer and a veteran of the war in Iraq. He's a member of Vets for Freedom.

General Wesley Clark on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

July 12, 2007
transcript by Melange

Keith Olbermann:  It’s an honor to be joined once again by Retired 4-star Army General Wesley Clark, also of course former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and a former Democratic presidential candidate as well.  General Clark, thanks again for being with us tonight. 

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK:  Good to be with you Keith.

Keith Olbermann:  The title alone of that new intelligence report, 'al Qaeda Better Positioned to Strike the West,' uh, obviously the phraseology reminds anyone who hears it of 2001's report 'bin Laden Determined to Strike US' followed by another report tonight by the AP about al Qaeda efforts to get operatives here, how serious that is is hard to say.  But how could a president play the fear card for so long and then simply dismiss what was reported today?  How could he have it both ways?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK:  Keith, he can’t.  I mean, the truth is al Qaeda has not only reconstituted its base area, this time along the border in Pakistan, next to Afghanistan, but it's also used our mission in Iraq as a huge recruiting magnet.  It ... every time we're seen on television, we generate anger among the Islamic populations and we feed the al Qaeda recruiting machine.  It's ... it's the inevitable accompaniment of the war strategy that President Bush chose.

General Wesley Clark on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

July 11, 2007
transcript by Melange

Amy Robach: Turning now to the upcoming NIE, the National Intelligence Estimate. Newsweek today reporting that it will include al Qaeda has “reconstituted its core structure and become stronger.” The Associated Press today also quoting unnamed intelligence sources saying al Qaeda’s resurrection has been so successful that America’s number one threat is now operating at a level last seen six years ago in the summer of 2001, just prior to the attacks of September 11th. This coming as a top CIA official testified before Congress today that al Qaeda is not, as Mr. Bush has claimed, on the run but has settled back in on the Pakistan border with more money, training and communications. All of this in the 24 hours after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff sparked a wave of ridicule when he explained to the Chicago Tribune how he has analyzed past al Qaeda patterns and recent al Qaeda communications.

[Video clip]

Michael Chertoff: All these things give me a…kind of a gut feeling that we’re in a period of…not that I have a specific threat, you know…that, uh I have in mind right now, but that we are entering a period of increased vulnerability.

[end Video clip]

Amy Robach: Meanwhile Newsweek reports that other US officials are offering concrete reasons for al Qaeda’s resurgence, specifically a truce that Pakistan struck with extremists on the border, allowing them to operate unfettered and give al Qaeda what the CIA official described as a safe haven. We turn now to retired 4-star General Wesley Clark, MSNBC Analyst and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, as well as a one-time Democratic presidential candidate. General, thanks for your time tonight.