WES CLARK: Iraq - Military/Diplomatic Solutions

Wes Clark: Iraq- Military and Diplomatic Solutions
August 3, 2007 | Chicago IL

(This is an excerpt from Wes Clark's recent speech to YearlyKos in Chicago, Illinois)
Now, from the President's perspective, Iraq is just a war. And he's real happy General Petraeus is over there, because General Petraeus is a General, and George Bush always listens to Generals. (laughter) He's told you that. And when he gets-
When he gets tired of listening to them, he replaces them.
I know these guys. They're all my friends. Many of them have worked for me or worked with me and, and I admire them, and they're doing a terrific job. And I admire Dave Petraeus. He's a fine officer, but he's going to do his best to make the surge work. That's his duty, and I think you can see by the results that where you put American troops, they're competent, they're capable, they're well led, they're well motivated, they're fearless, they do their duty, and of course they do make a difference. If you're a terrorist or you're Al Qaeda in Iraq or you're the Madhi's Army and you come face to face with American troops, you're in trouble. You take a shot at them, they shoot back. You miss, American troops hit. Our soldiers, they hit what they shoot at. They're trained to do that, and they're good, and I'm proud of them.
But what we've got to do is create not an argument in the United States over the troops or their tactics, but raise the debate to the administration's strategies and policies in this region. Here's why. We can't succeed in Iraq with the numbers of troops, no matter how good they are, because you can't succeed in this war just by killing people or intimidating the opposition.
Dave Petraeus would be the first one to tell you that. The military's part of the solution. It's not the answer. The answer's the politics. The politics inside Iraq are not just people who are afraid. It's not just a group of people who say, 'Gee, if I just, if I could just let my kids go to school, I wouldn't have to join a militia.' Maybe there's some of that, but there's a lot more than that going on. This is a power struggle within religious factions. It's a power struggle between religious factions. And it's a geo-strategic struggle between different nations in the region. - All playing out on the ground in forms of violence, intimidation, blackmail, corruption, payoffs, influence, healthcare, coaching, counseling, there's no telling how many different intelligence agencies and means of action and influence from different nations are present in Iraq. It's a whole lot more then the number of nations participating in our coalition. I can promise you that. (Applause)
And so, we're not going to solve this problem unless we work it at the diplomatic level and that means we've got to stop isolating people we disagree with and start engaging those people.

Wes Clark: President Bush, Stop Hiding Behind Your Generals. Defend Your Strategy!
But now, here's our problem. Okay? We- the administration doesn't want to talk about this. What they want to talk about is troops. They want to say they support our troops, and if we question the numbers of troops or their effectiveness, they want to say, 'You people don't support our troops. If you don't support our troops then you're not patriotic, and if you're not patriotic, then you don't have a voice.' I mean, that's what leaks out from everybody from Undersecretary Edelman and Vice President Cheney all the way down in every dialog.
.... But you're not going to change the policy by arguing about the troops strength. We've done it. We're on record. We want the troops home, but may I suggest that if we can raise the dialog, take it away from George Bush's safe ground of troops and people in uniform and 'How dare you question these Generals and these people in uniform that are so patriotic,' and say, 'No, we're not questioning the Generals. Mr. President, we are questioning you, you're administration, your leadership!'
I want you to say to President Bush, 'Mr. President, stop hiding behind Dave Petreaus and come out here and defend YOUR strategy! This is your war. You defend it.'

Wes Clark: George Bush - a Rookie Pitcher
George Bush reminds me of a rookie pitcher who thinks he's got a no-hitter going in the 7th inning, and he's just trying to skate through so the loss can be given to the relief that's coming in. ...
But it's not about the military. It's about the political. And it's not only about the political in Iraq. It's about the political here at home, and that's what I want to talk a little about today.
In the last year I've traveled all over the world. I've been in Asia, in China. I've been in the Middle East three times - Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia twice. I've been in Turkey. I've been in Eastern Europe - Ukraine, Estonia. I've been in Scandinavia - Finland, Denmark. Been in Central Europe in Netherlands and in Italy three or four times. I've been in England a couple of times. Been in, in, in the Caribbean and in Panama twice.
Everywhere people love what America stands for. They respect Americans. They love us as people. They've read what we say we believe in. They just don't understand where we are.
...why is it that at every international foundation and forum, the official U.S. position is to block forward movement on issues of global warming, quarrel with the data, disagree with mandatory controls, push timelines back, argue, argue, argue, stall, stall, stall. Where is America?
...they ask me, they say, 'Well look, you know, the biggest cause of terrorism, the thing that we're most worried about is that you Americans haven't done your duty in trying to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
And oh, by the way, they get around to mentioning Iraq too. (laughter) Not one of them, not one, no statesman, no scholar, no businessman has come to me and said, 'What you Americans did in Iraq, you know, getting rid of Saddam Hussein, thank you very much. Come and do it to my country!'