Wesley Clark's War on Terror

We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice, we’re not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. - George W. Bush

Certainly there’s a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they would be talking to Al Qaeda, that there would be some Al Qaeda there or that Saddam Hussein might even be, you know, discussing gee, I wonder since I don’t have any scuds and since the Americans are coming at me, I wonder if I could take advantage of Al Qaeda? How would I do it? Is it worth the risk? What could they do for me? - Wesley Clark

That having been said, I was against the war as it emerged because there was no reason to start it when we did. - Wesley Clark

Iraq had no connection to the war on terror. Of all the states in the Middle East to give chemical, biological or nuclear weapons to terrorists, least likely was Iraq. - Wesley Clark

This administration has taken us into a reckless war. - Wesley Clark

First of all, I do believe that the United States diplomacy in the United Nations will be strengthened if the Congress can adopt a resolution expressing U.S. determination to act if the United Nations can not act. The use of force must remain a U.S. option under active consideration. - Wesley Clark

We believe in international institutions. We invented the UN. And we use force only, only, only as a last resort. - Wesley Clark

It would be reckless in the extreme to rule out action and save our worries until the day they strike. If the threat from terrorists and terrorist states are permitted to fully emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. - Dick Cheney

Matt, when it comes right down to it, I would never have voted for war because this was not a case that required war. - Wesley Clark

During the war in Kosovo, Clark, as Supreme Allied Commander, defended the bombing of a Belgrade TV station in which 20 journalists were killed. Several Clark supporters have written me, arguing that TV stations are “legitimate” targets in war. Wow. You mean to tell me that if the New York Times or CNN headquarters got hit by the enemy we wouldn’t condemn it as an act of terrorism; a war crime resulting in the killing of innocent civilians? The point I’m trying to make is: If you’re going to be against terrorism and for peace, you have to be against all terrorism — theirs and ours. - Sean Gonsalves

In 1996, however, the marginal secessionist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army, stepped up its violent campaign for Kosovan independence and launched a series of assassinations of policemen and civilians in Kosovo, targeting not only Serbs, but also Albanians who did not support the KLA. The Yugoslav government branded the KLA a terrorist organisation - a description also used by US officials. As late as the beginning of 1998, Robert Gelbard, US special envoy to Bosnia, declared: “The UCK (KLA) is without any question a terrorist group.” - Kate Hudson

Clark wrote a Time magazine column, “How to Fight the New War,” in which he said we need new tactics and strategies against terrorists. He also said, “We need face-to-face information collection: Who are these people, what are their intentions, and what can be done to disrupt their plans and arrest them?” For the answer, Clark should ask his old friend, Hashim Thaki, the commander of the KLA. The 1998 State Department human rights report had described the KLA as a group that tortured and abducted people and made others “disappear.” Yet a photograph was taken of Clark and Thaki with their hands together in a gesture of solidarity. The KLA’s ties to Osama bin Laden were also well-known and reported. - Cliff Kincaid

Just what is needed in the chaos of Kosovo—a multi-millionaire terrorist setting up shop with his old friends, the Albanian KLA. Given that the place is violently out of control despite the efforts of NATO/UN peacekeepers, Bin Laden couldn’t pick a better place on the globe to slip quietly below the surface of the fantastic social and political turmoil created in Kosovo by the Clinton/Albright/NATO bombing blunder in the Balkans. - henbane

The Kosovo Liberation Army announced their intentions to rid Kosovo of all Serbs (the Albanians are the majority in Kosovo, the Serbs, a minority). That’s all a nutcase like Milosevic needed to justify his campaign to rid Kosovo of all Albanians. - Michael Moore

Speaking in his native Serbo-Croatian, Milosevic used his cross-examination of Clark on Tuesday to try to turn the trial into a political forum and make his own indictment of NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. He hammered away at the witness as a “war criminal” and accused Clark of deceitfulness and of commanding a “terrorist” army by siding with the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA. At one point, Milosevic displayed a picture of a KLA soldier holding up two severed heads of Serbs and asked, “Are these allies of General Clark’s infantry in Kosovo?” “Do you think you are a war criminal, General Clark?” Milosevic asked, before presiding Judge Richard May interrupted, saying the question was not proper. - Keith B. Richburg

The reason we were able to get NATO help in Kosovo was because allies were so eager to have us assume the burden for their local problem in the Balkans - Loren Thompson

Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a case for war based on false claims. We need to know if we were intentionally deceived. - Wesley Clark

Was NATO’s bombing of Serbia and Kosovo an appropriate response to the suffering of the Albanians, or did it, in fact, add to their suffering? The bombing didn’t stop the Serb atrocities against the Kosovar Albanians. It may have accelerated attacks once the bombing was under way. Worse, the bombing fed into the cycle of vengeance of Serb versus Kosovar versus Serb, which continues today. - Dennis Kucinich

I would never have voted for war. The war was an unnecessary war and it’s been a huge strategic mistake for the country. - Wesley Clark

I would like to see him tried in The Hague. I think it’s very important for US legitimacy and for building other support in the war on terror for trying them in The Hague, under international law with an international group of justices, bringing witnesses from other nations. Remember, 80 other nations lost citizens in that strike on the World Trade Centre. It was a crime against humanity, and he needs to be tried in international court. - Wesley Clark

The president was not and has not been held accountable yet for misleading the American people. He is continuing to associate Saddam, Iraq, and the problem of terrorism. Yet the only terrorists that are in Iraq are the people that have come there to attack us. - Wesley Clark

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark sought the political support of a Muslim group that is under FBI investigation for terror ties, sources told the Daily News. The Democratic presidential candidate’s videotaped message was played Dec. 27 in Chicago for the annual conference of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America - a Queens group being probed by the FBI counterterrorism agents, said two federal law enforcement officials. - James Gordon Meek

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Wesley Clark's War on Terror

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