Former General Calls for Darfur Force

May 26, 2006

By JENNIFER SIEGEL | Forward

As world leaders struggle to halt the mass killing in Darfur, former general and 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark is calling for NATO to intervene in the conflict and for the United States to commit a small detachment of ground troops.

Clark served as the supreme allied commander of the NATO forces that drove Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic from power in 1999. The former American general's call for heightened intervention in Darfur came on the eve of his first trip back to Kosovo, the Serbian province where ethnic Albanians were targeted by Milosevic for ethnic cleansing.

"[Kosovo is] the perfect model for how the U.S. should be operating in world affairs," Clark said in an interview with the Forward shortly before his departure for the Balkans on Tuesday night. "We provided leadership during the air campaign. In the aftermath, it was actually the Europeans who provided 80% of the forces, and the military leadership on the ground."

General Wesley Clark: Why the U.S. Should Care About Darfur
NPR, News & Notes with Ed Gordon

April 20, 2006
Transcript by Reg NYC

Wes Clark: " I think it's clear that this is, in the first case it's a humanitarian tragedy. It's continuously unfolding, and it won't be stopped without US leadership to stop it."

We encourage you to listen to the clip

Transcript below ...

A US plan for Darfur

By Wesley Clark and John Prendergast

April 10, 2006

Boston Globe Link

ONCE AGAIN, the drumbeat is intensifying for stronger action to end the untold human suffering in Darfur, Sudan.

Senator Hillary Clinton recently sent a letter to President Bush, warning that ''our continued inaction will enable the killings to continue." A senior UN official told us that the international community is ''keeping people alive with our humanitarian assistance until they are massacred." After leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Darfur recently, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi stated, ''We all went to Darfur with a sense of deep concern, and we all left with a sense of outrage and urgency." The question now is whether all this noise will translate into concrete measures to protect the people of Darfur.

Out of time in Darfur
By Wesley Clark and John Prendergast
Monday, July 5, 2004
Published in USA TODAY

For the past year, the international community has shamefully acquiesced to the crimes against humanity occurring daily in the Sudanese province of Darfur.

"Janjaweed" militias, Arabs backed by the Sudanese government, are continuing to conduct mop-up operations against non-Arab villagers in a massive ethnic-cleansing campaign in the region. The current conflict flared early last year when two rebel groups in Darfur attacked government forces. The swelling crisis could leave hundreds of thousands dead in the coming months.

General Wesley K. Clark discussed the need for NATO intervention in Darfur on the National Public Radio's (NPR) Morning Edition.
Transcript reprinted with permission.

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By Gen. (ret.) Wesley Clark
NPR "Morning Edition"
August 22, 2005
The transcript is available below:

Occasion of the Salute to the Liberators
The United States Holocaust Museum
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Washington, DC
May 4, 2005

(As prepared for delivery)

Thank you for that kind introduction. I am confident I can speak for everyone here when I say it is an honor for us to be here with you the survivors and you the liberators - we are awed by your bravery, your patriotism and your humility.

I salute you soldiers out here tonight who fought and saved the world sixty years ago. Please stand up so we might recognize you and thank you.

As we sit here tonight, there are thousands of young men and women in uniform fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan. They too are American heroes and deserve a moment of silence to reflect on their courage and sacrifice and that of their families.

America's soldiers are the best and brightest that America has to offer and they make us all proud. People ask me everyday what can be done to bring our soldiers home. What I have to say isn't always popular, but it's the truth I know. The United States can, must and will win this war on terror. We owe it to the Armed Forces to demand nothing short of success from our civilian leadership. We need a strategy for success and the resources to get the job done and get our troops home. Not to cut and run, but to stay and succeed.