For The Record, President Wes Clark Would Be Getting Us Out Right Now.

[DistressedAmerican]

Just saying...:shrug:

[davidinalameda]

1. President Wes Clark would have gotten us out long before now

and President Wes Clark, when he takes office in January 2009, will have a plan to get us out

[shireen]

15. LOL! I've started calling him President Clark too.

It's therapeutic, gives me hope.... :-)

[jonnyblitz]

2. is that what he said? none of this "stay there til its fixed" bullshit?

:wow:

[DistressedAmerican]

6. Would Have Taken The Fight Where It Belongs.

Read "Winning Modern Wars".

Very good read.

[FrenchieCat]

8. What Clark has done today is to

frame the Iraq War message and has set-up the GOP to fall in 2006.

In Clark's op-ed, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501623.html
he says that IF the Bush administration doesn't change its strategy quickly, then a pull out recourse will be the only solution left. As Clark had said....the clock is ticking. Soon the clock will stop ticking and we will be out of time.

As we are all quite aware that Bush ain't about to pull-out.....with Clark offering a rational plan short of pulling out that the Bush admin will be ignoring, then very soon a Pull-out will be the only alternative plan left to be offered. But when it is, Bush and the media cannot say that Democrats did not offer alternative plans short of pulling out.

I think it's the way to get us to the Pull-out position while having covered all bases via constructive debate.

Framing is key to providing the 2006 congressional candidates with something to campaign on. Screaming pull-out can only be effective if it is clearly understood that BushCO kept screwing everything up and listened to no one.

Clark is doing what Clark can do to lead 2006 to a victory on this issue......

[davidinalameda]

11. Yeah Frenchie!!!!!

Clark/Frenchie in 2008!!!!


:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[DistressedAmerican]

12. Seconded!

[BeyondGeography]

14. Thanks for posting this

This line is especially well put:

<President Bush and his team are repeating the failure of Vietnam: failing to craft a realistic and effective policy and instead simply demanding that the American people show resolve. Resolve isn't enough to mend a flawed approach -- or to save the lives of our troops.>

[Pithy Cherub]

3. President Wes would have never gotten us in this mess...

;) just sayin' :pals:

[TwilightZone]

4. We might still be there for his inauguration.

The ultimate good/bad news.

[FrenchieCat]

5. The Democrats had and have had a plan.....

and the messed up Corporate media better admit it....
At least bloggers are talking about it....

Scott Shields on MyDD 8/26/05
http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/8/26/143249/029#readmore
Clark Lays Out Plan For Iraq
by Scott Shields

Mazer Rackam on Dilatory Action 8/26/05
http://dilatoryaction.blogspot.com/2005/08/workable-plan-for-iraq.html

Matthew Yglesias on TAPPED 8/26/05
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/08/index.html#007521
CLARK ON WITHDRAWAL.
Wesley Clark's gone and done what needs to be done if you're going to argue against withdrawing from Iraq -- outline some alternatives. It seems to me that if the things Clark wants to be done can, in fact, be done, then they might work.

Armando on Daily Kos 8/26/05
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/26/53325/3578
Gen. Clark Merges Politics and Policy

[AlGore-08.com]

7. For the record, Real President Gore has said he never would have invaded

He first voiced his opposition to the war on his Commonwealth Club speech of Sept. 2002 - - given a couple weeks before Congress voted to authorize the invasion. He's opposed the war consistently, also the Patriot Act, the Smirk tax cuts, No Child Left Behind, the attacks on our civil rights and the environment... you name the stupid *ss thing that Smirk proposed and Congress approved over the past 5 years, and Al Gore was against it from the word go.

Plus, he has a proven track record of visionary leadership - - if you're reading this on the Internets, thank Al Gore.

I'm just sayin' as well. ;)

[FrenchieCat]

9. Good for President Gore!

He was correct.

Clark was saying the same thing back in September 2002 as well.

Good to some prescient Democrats!

I certainly like Al Gore.... but I just like Wes Best.

[DistressedAmerican]

10. Hear Hear! Robbed!

Bastards!

[DrJackson]

13. What about Gore/Clark in '08?

Just think of it -- progressive thinking on education, technology and the environment, coupled with a strong military background/proven track record in international diplomacy.

A guy can dream, can't he?

[shireen]

17. i like to believe that somewhere out there is a parallel universe where ..

there is a United States of America run by President Albert Gore, in his second term. There's no 9-11 because he was able to stop it in time, stopped the sanctions against Iraq leading to the overthrow of Saddam by his own people, no deficit because he did not give tax breaks to the rich, Social Security is healthy and thriving, kids are excelling in math and science thanks to better support and funds for education, more young people are going to college, China is begging us to move our jobs there but we refuse, we are converting to a Universal Healthcare system, the middle class is happy as a clam ....

-- and so much more --

oh.... what could have been ....

[ieoeja]

18. I thought Gore chaired the PATRIOT Act

I thought they pulled the 1998 bill written by a committee chaired by then VP Gore out of a drawer, slapped a cutesy name on it and sent it to Congress as the PATRIOT act. In '98 and '00 the GOP ridiculed Clinton/Gore for taking terrorism too seriously, and this was their prime piece of evidence.

[AlGore-08.com]

26. Do you mean Gore chaired the "Reinventing Government" Initiative?

That did have some law enforcement components that the GOP used when they were bashing Clinton & Gore for "trying to scare" America about the "bogus" terrorist threat. Gore was out of office when the Patriot Act was written and enacted.

[Generic Other]

16. I believe you

Any of our Dem candidates would have done better.

They all agreed Bush had to go: Kerry, Dean, Clark, Gore, Sharpton, Gephardt...

I wish they were all still yelling at him every day!

[sandnsea]

19. So Would President John Kerry

Stabilization was his goal, not some obscure notion of "winning".

Just saying... :shrug:

[VOX]

20. "a mistake now to pull out, start pulling out, or set a date to pull out"

This is exactly what Clark is saying today. I have every respect for Clark, but he is not advocating an immediate pull-out of U.S. troops.

http://securingamerica.com/
By Gen. (ret.) Wesley Clark
Washington Post
Unabridged Version
August 26, 2005

In the old, familiar fashion, mounting US casualties in Iraq have mobilized increasing public doubts about the war. Now, more than half the American people believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. They're right. But it would also be a mistake now to pull out, start pulling out, or set a date to pull out. Instead we need a strategy to create a stable democratizing and peaceful state in Iraq – a strategy the Administration has failed to develop and articulate.

From the outset of the American post-invasion efforts, we needed a three-pronged strategy – diplomatic, political, and military. Iraq sits geographically on the fault-line between Shia and Sunni Islam – and for the mission to succeed we will have to be the catalyst for regional cooperation. Iraq cannot be "isolated from its neighbors and tensions in the region. We needed to engage Iraq's neighbors to insure that a stable, democratizing Iraq was not a threat to them, to isolate Iraq from outside supplies, leadership, and manpower, and to gain from them resources and support to alleviate the burdens on the US.

[Swamp Rat]

21. Clark/Conyers 2008

Clark/Conyers 2008

:)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. That's not what he said in the WP.

He still has delusions of winning a lost war.

[FrenchieCat]

24. I disagree with you....and I believe that we have to think out of the box

That the Corporate media, the Bush Admin, and some Democrats are attempting to force Dem leaders into. Clark's strategy is smarter than you might want to give him credit for.

Wes Clark's plan is a workable and doable plan, but it is not a plan that the Bush Admin will ever adopt. Clark's goal was to come up with a plan that could work...understanding full well that BushCo will never adopt such a plan.

Clark is not delusional whatso-Ever.

If Bush did, by some devine miracle do as Clark suggests...which includes changing America's current PNAC design on the region and communicating that to all (including denouncing and abandoning the current construction of US military bases); and internationalizing the economic, political and military aspects of this war and giving Iraq, Iraq's neighbors and Europeans (including NATO on the military end, the UN on the political side) a real big seat at the table....Then yes, it is very possible that we could get out of this debacle in one piece, and so could the Iraqis.

But the plan won't be implimented by this administration because Bush's entire Iraq strategy was for the express purpose of achieving American Imperialism and control over the oil in that part of the world.....so buying into Clark's plan would destroy the entire reason why they went in to begin with.

Clark is framing and setting up the GOP for 2006. In his op-ed, he says that IF the Bush administration doesn't change its strategy quickly, then a pull out recourse will be the only solution left.

Bush ain't about to pull-out.....so with Clark offering a rational plan short of pulling out that the Bush admin will be ignoring, he has made an essential offensive play for the Democrats. Bush and the media cannot say that Democrats did not offer alternative plans short of pulling out.

2006 Congressional Democratic Candidates message to Bush: "President Bush, since you won't change your course now, although alternate plans have been offered, your only recourse is to pull out or continue with this disaster that your inept leadership has wrought! You were wrong, and now your time is up! make way for new congressional leadership who can end your giant fuck-up."

[Seabiscuit]

23. Dayam straight!

[Deja Q]

25. That sounds like unintelligible flamebait...

:popcorn:

:hide: