General Wesley Clark on the Mancow Show

April 9, 2008

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.

Wesley Clark: 'Women can fight'

Gen. Clark campaigned with Sen. Clinton in Waco, Texas recently.

(CNN) – In a conference call with reporters Sunday, Gen. Wesley Clark, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s most high-profile supporters with a military background, took the opportunity to address whether a woman could be counted on to use force when necessary to protect the United States.

“I hope that we’re past that,” Clark said. Noting that “during the Kosovo campaign we had some wonderful women flying airplanes, dropping bombs,” the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO explained “women can fight and women will fight but they’ll fight smart.”

“Hillary Clinton is a fighter by nature,” he said. “I would have no concerns about her willingness to use force but I have great confidence that she’ll only use it as a last resort.”

Clark explained Clinton’s vote authorizing President Bush to take action in Iraq as “a vote for coercive diplomacy” rather than “a vote for war,” and said the Bush administration “misused” the authority granted to it by Congress.

Clark also told reporters that Clinton was more qualified than Sen. John McCain to be the next commander-in chief because McCain’s service as a naval fighter pilot did not prepare him “in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved” in being president. Clinton, in Clark’s estimation, has had the necessary experience to make high-level national security decisions because of her tenure in the U.S. Senate and her time as First Lady.

Clark and 15 other retired U.S. military flag officers, generals and admirals, used the call to explain why they are endorsing Clinton to be the nation’s next commander-in-chief.

"What this country needs is leadership."

Text of the ad:

I see that Hillary’s opponents have started attacking her. That’s politics. What this country needs is leadership.

I’m Wes Clark; I commanded our forces in Europe when we won the fight to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

I’ve known Hillary Clinton for twenty-four years. I know she has what it takes to end the war in Iraq, avert war with Iran, and restore our country’s standing in the world.

These are tough times and Hillary Clinton is the right choice for America.

General Wesley Clark on the Alex Bennett Program on Sirius Satellite Radio

November 28, 2007

General Wesley Clark on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC

November 28, 2007
transcript by Reg NYC

Brian Lehrer: How about a Hillary Clinton/Wesley Clark ticket? How about another war in Kosovo. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, good morning everyone. After the news former NATO Commander Wesley Clark. He served under President Clinton, now campaigning for Hillary Clinton. Among other things, he is predicting that President Bush will declare victory in Iraq, complete with a parade, and believe it or not, he calls for sending more U.S. troops to the Balkans now, which he says could again become a major security threat.

General Wesley Clark is with me, the former NATO Commander under President Clinton, who ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2004. This year, he's supporting Hillary Clinton and has been campaigning with her, fueling speculation he could even be her running mate. General, it's so nice to have you with us. Welcome to WNYC.