Helen Thomas: Clark all over the place on war issue

[Rose Siding]

Remove Arrows from Dean's Back

snip>

Personally, I have never seen so much antagonism directed at a candidate by other members of the same party. It seems to me his competitors would do better to toot their own horns instead of tearing down a colleague.

snip>

But in the heat of the battle, most of the Democratic wannabes are busy hanging the "can't win against Bush" label on Dean and highlighting his perceived political gaffes.

Dean has staked out a strong position against the invasion of Iraq. The same is true of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the only member of Congress among the pack who voted against giving Bush authority to go to war.

The other Democratic congressional presidential contenders voted for the war, including Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts; Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and John Edwards of North Carolina.

Oddly, Kerry made a name for himself protesting the Vietnam War back in the 1970s.

Then there is retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who is all over the place on the war issue. He has said he probably would have voted to authorize the war, but he also has said it was an "unnecessary war" and he has rejected the Bush doctrine of preventive war.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-10.htm

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. Great article!

One of several reasons I am now an ex-Clark supporter: he can't get his story straight on the Iraq war and the IWR.

[robbedvoter]

3. Cuban, any post in which you don't mention the ex-Clark thingy?

I saw almost all 38 of them and I wonder: what made you join DU again? (Welcome, BTW)

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. Lots.

Thanks for the welcome. I joined DU after a lot of Clark supporters did, because I never responded to the calls on the blog to register and take the place over; I decided to join for reasons besides the 'herd mentality'.

:hi:

[BootinUp]

4. Thats funny, its exactly the same

as it was in 2002. He also has written a book. The only thing you can say is Clark does not see it as a black and white litmus test. But if we were all being honest you could say the same about Dean despite his campaign tactics.

Here is Clark's testimony before the House Armed Services Committee

U.S. POLICY TOWARD IRAQ

Hearing Before the
House Armed Services Committee

September 26, 2002

snip of relevant section:

SAXTON (R-NJ): Mr. Perle, General Clark indicated a few minutes ago that he wasn't sure -- I'm sorry, I don't want to mischaracterize what General Clark said but something to the effect that we don't have information that Al Qaida and the Iraqi regime are connected. Is that a fair characterization, General Clark?

CLARK: I'm saying there hasn't been any substantiation of the linkage of the Iraqi regime to the events of 9/11 or the fact that they are giving weapons of mass destruction capability to Al Qaida, yes sir

CLARK: Representative Saxton, if I could just tag along on that. I think there's no question that, even though we may not have the evidence as Richard says, that there have been such contacts. It's normal. It's natural. These are a lot of bad actors in the same region together. They are going to bump into each other. They are going to exchange information. They're going to feel each other out and see whether there are opportunities to cooperate. That's inevitable in this region, and I think it's clear that regardless of whether or not such evidence is produced of these connections that Saddam Hussein is a threat.

So I think that, you know, the key issue is how we move from here and what do we need to do to deal with this threat? But I think what's also clear is that the way you deal with the threat from Iraq is different than the way you deal with the threat from Al Qaida. And so, my contention has been we need to look at different means for dealing with these threats. We need to take advantage of all the resources at our disposal, not just the military.

....more http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/us/hearingspreparedstatements/hasc-092602.htm

[Cuban_Liberal]

8. It's not the only reason I left the campaign, as I said.

But he HAS been all over the map about it, no matter how you parse his words.

[Skwmom]

13. Are you confusing Clark with Dean?

He (Dean) gets a deluge of phone calls from reporters asking him to clarify his position (If he'd just keep his story straight he wouldn't be forever clarifying where he stands on the issues). Which is -- "as I've said about eight times today," he says, annoyed -- that Saddam must be disarmed, but with a multilateral force under the auspices of the United Nations. If the U.N. in the end chooses not to enforce its own resolutions, then the U.S. should give Saddam 30 to 60 days to disarm, and if he doesn't, unilateral action is a regrettable, but unavoidable, choice.

http://fordean.org/aa/issues/press_view.asp?ID=398

[Rose Siding]

15. You can be sure Helen isn't confusing them

[mmonk]

2. old arguments

from lazy inquiry. She's a Dean partisan (not objective).

[Rose Siding]

6. Helen Thomas isn't objective?

My, my, my

[Frederic Bastiat]

7. A whole paragraph on Clark

wow :eyes:

[cavebat2000]

9. LoL

She happens to only write a paragraph so shes not objective

[Cuban_Liberal]

10. The problem with Clark's 'record'

You can pick almost any sound bite you want to support almost ANY position. Wes Clark is all things to all people, and he's as phony as a $3 Cartier watch..

[Rose Siding]

20. Would you have her go on at length?

Wouldn't that sort of defeat the purpose of the column? She's using examples, not feeding any fire.

Helen is the one of the lonely voices of ethics and justice remaining in the political press.

[Brian_Expat]

11. This is why Clark is unelectable in my opinion

He is too soft on the Iraq War on Terror. A majority of Americans want someone who is committed to do what's right for all of America, not what's right for Wesley Clark's chances to get the Democratic nominee. This is really going to hurt the party if he's the nominee -- Karl Rove will have a field day.

[PatrioticOhioLiberal]

14. The Iraq war on terror?

Interesting phrasing there...I guess you're a Fox News affectionado?

Let's see...Al Quada flies planes into buildings...wage war on terror in Iraq...yep, makes sense to me.

[w13rd0]

12. Now that Helen has said this....

...I expect the same kind of "tolerance of dissent" we've come to know and expect from some. How many Presidential tenures has she covered now?

[Hoppin_Mad]

16. Helen calls em as she sees em -nt-

[stickdog]

17. Helen Thomas is a self-aggrandizing traitor. Just like Al Gore,

Bill Bradley, Tom Harkin and Jimmy Carter!

[Cheswick2.0]

19. lol

I am not sure you are allowed to use humor here, but that is funny.

[WI_DEM]

18. Clark

has been all over the globe on Iraq. Good for Helen T for pointing it out.