Somebody really is owned by Exxon too, now, aren't they? Disinvite the guy who settled the can of worms in the Balkans that Bu$hie I handed the Clintons. Matt Stoller points to Clark's analyis to the Georgian situation:
...GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think we should be very concerned and it's not just the U.S. and Russia. This is really about NATO. It's about the U.S. leadership role in Europe and how European countries respond to the United States. So, we need to be focusing on not just a U.S. - Russia bilateral relationship, but we need to be focusing on Transatlantic unity in- and using that Transatlantic unity to shape the behavior of Russia. That's one of the areas in which I think the administration has frankly not been as effective in the last seven years as it could've been, because there's been a lot of emphasis on U.S. unilateral relations with Russia and elsewhere and not enough emphasis on Transatlantic unity...
Tom Foreman: President Saakasvili in Georgia is blaming the West for making this breakout right now because, he said, the West entertained the idea of bringing Georgia into NATO, in which case NATO would've been bound to defend them against the Russians, but didn't bring them in. And that sort of poked Russia in the chest and made this happen. Do you buy his complaint that the West is to blame?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Not exactly. I think that, first of all, I've been, I've been very pleased to see NATO enlarge as it has over the last few years, but every, every step has to be carefully looked at. It has to have the, the backing of all NATO members, and there is some membership criteria that have to be met. One of those membership criteria incidentally is that all the territorial issues have to be resolved. they weren't resolved in the case of Georgia. The United States proposed Georgia for membership. The European allies asked some tough questions. It was decided that to give it a little bit more time. So, I don't think that the United States or NATO's responsible for this. But I do think that we could've seen this crisis coming. I think we should've worked for years to diffuse this and protect Georgia's claims on South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Russian encroachment.
Tom Foreman: H-how would you have done that?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I would've insisted a neutral peacekeeping force, not Russian peacekeepers in the area and a real process of addressing the, the, the alleged grievances between Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Georgia...
Now that would be the last thing the Company wanted.
...Tome Foreman: Obviously, the, the Georgians are very concerned about the idea that the Russians are still there despite this agreement. If the Russians, Russians will not leave and will not leave quickly, what should be done?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, what has to be done regardless is we've got to get the neutral observers in there. France first proposed this in the cease-fire agreement. I, I think it's absolutely essential. Barack Obama has called for it. We've got to have people on the ground. With all due respect to CNN (chuckles) and, and BBC, we got to have real observers in there who can tell us where the Russian forces are, what they're doing and help us serve as the link to say, to go right back to Moscow and say, say, 'Mr. President or Prime Minster, you said the forces were pulling out, but they've just moved to this village and that village. Get it stopped.' And you've got to have that kind of instant communication from the bottom to the top. That can't be done only through the news media. We've got to have observers in there. And then we've got to use our leverage - economic leverage, political leverage, legal leverage. Russia's done one heck of a lot of financial damage to Georgia. I think they should be held accountable. Take them tr-, to court. I mean, this is a, a world that has law. And we don't know what the economic consequences of this are, but they're profound. And I think Russia needs to leave the Georgian military equipment and bases - some of which were payed by the United States - leave them alone. They're no threat to Russia. Pull out and and pull out now.
Tom Foreman: Are we anywhere near talking about a military option in that country, or is that something way off in the future?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I don't think we're talking about a military option there. I'm glad to see a humanitarian airlift in there. I think that's great. But putting-
Tom Foreman: But we have a lot of talking to do between now and that sort of position.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Put, putting U.S. troops in there, i-it just doesn't make sense. It's not what- it's not necessary, and we just shouldn't be talking about this. What we really have to talk about is Transatlantic resolve. Russia has to behave as a responsible member of the international community. It's not behaving, and we need to call it on this bad behavior. And to call it, it takes the united resolve of all the nations of the West, not just the United States.
No it really doesn't make sense to put American troops there, not if you're trying to negotiate a peace, which is exactly why all the partisans for war, from McCain to Cheneyburton want to do it.
And that observation, more than anything else like dissing Mc$ame's qualifications to lead, is the reason why Obama won't allow Clark's support.
Exxon funds the partisans for war, and increasingly Barak Obama too.
Just keep it up, Senator Obama, you'll manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A cheap date is the easiest kind to dump. You know that, you certainly seem intent on dumping your base for the Ba$e.
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