Stephanie Miller had a live almost 15 minute phone call with General Wes Clark on her radio show this morning. They were in good humor much of the time so it was a lot of fun to listen to (so of course you really should - I'll leave a link to a tape of it below). However there was plenty of serious content also. I think the following exchange is the most important for folks to key in on closely:
Stephanie Miller: General Clark, what would you advise the Democrats to do in terms of i-i-in terms of Iraq?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Elevate the discussion. Get off the troops and tactics, and get into strategies and policies. Look, Stephanie, this administration wanted to remake the Middle Eastern map. They wanted to force regime change in five or six, seven different countries when they invaded Iraq. That was the plan - seven countries in five years, ending with Iran. Now, the administration's never formally acknowledged that was its strategy. So, we don't have any published strategy, and they certainly haven't recanted that strategy. In fact,-
Stephanie Miller: Right.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK:: -my guess would be that guys like Dick Cheney strongly believe that they're going to go after regime change. Now, imagine yourself-
Stephanie Miller: And apparently, apparently-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -in Iran.
Stephanie Miller: Mm hm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK:: Just imagine yourself-
Stephanie Miller: Mm, hm mm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK:: -in Iran. Okay? The United States of America has forces on your Eastern border in Afghanistan. It has forces on your Western border in the Persian Gulf. It's on your South in the Arabian Sea. It has air bases on your North. It can fly over. It can send Special Forces. And there's an insurgency that rumor says is being supported by the United States against Iran, and the Secretary of State of the United States has gone to Congress and asked for 75 million dollars to overthrow your government. They call it in Washington 'regime change'.
Stephanie Miller: Mm hm, mm hm.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And so, would you feel like, if you were in Iran, that you had to sort of take some action, or would you sit there and be a punching bag? So, when people in the United States believe that the Iranians are a threat, I don't disagree. They are a threat, but our actions don't allow us to change the relationship. We've got to change our actions. We've got to re-look at our strategy, and Democrats need to be talking about this.
Democrats do need to be talking about this, and I hope both the netroots and our current Presidential Candidates will do exactly that. Here is a link to both a full written transcript of the phone call and the audio download of it:
http://securingamerica.com/node/2508