Counterpunch: Wesley Clark "Another Con Job of the NeoCons?"

Wayne Madsen is busy hating Clark and making crazy stuff up.

The latest trick of the neo-cons is running retired General Wesley Clark for President as a Democrat. But not just any Democrat -- a "New Democrat." The same bunch that are pushing Joe Lieberman's candidacy are obviously hedging on their bets and want to have Clark in the race as a potential vice presidential candidate (to ensure their continued influence in a future Democratic administration of Howard Dean, John Kerry, or Dick Gephardt) or as a "go-to" candidate in the event that Lieberman stumbles badly in the first few Democratic primaries next year.

Why Madsen thinks the New Democrats need Clark to run as President so they can have him as Vice President is beyond me. Why wouldn't they just pick him after Lieberman scoops up the nomination? Oh, they need him as a fall-back candidate. Well, why didn't they run him in the first place? If Madsen is right about the New Democrats, then they seriously need to get their machination rationales into the Illuminati repair shop.

Clark is in the race because he saw enough support in the people who matters, the voting public. The New Democrats aren't pulling his strings - they just know a potential victor when they see one. (And hedging your bets on Lieberman looks to be a wise choice these days.)

The "New Democrats" (neo-cons) are as much masters at the perception management (lying) game as their GOP counterparts (Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld). Clark's presidential candidacy announcement in Little Rock is one warning sign.

Okay, wait. On the entire political spectrum, the New Democrats have to be on the left side. Even if they're just one tiny toe away from the center point, they're on the left side. The *ahem* Liberal side. So how can they be neo-conservatives? Neo-liberals? No, they've always been liberals. Neo-con-wanna-bes? Sounds like a river in Mississippi. "The Snopes had always lived on the banks of Neoconwannabe..."

Why don't we just call them New Democrats? That's what they want to be called.

And Clark announced his presidency in Little Rock because he's lived there since he was five years old.

Wesley Clark was born on December 23rd, 1944 in Chicago, into an Orthodox Jewish Family. His father Benjamin Kanne, a lawyer and Democratic Party politician, died when Wesley was five years old. His mother, Veneta Kanne Clark, from Arkansas originally, moved the family back to Little Rock where she remarried a former banker, Victor Clark.

It's incredible, isn't it? As if little Wesley ran to his mother when he was five and murmured into her ear, "Mother, we must move back to your hometown now that Papa has died. The New Democrats will want me to announce my candidacy from there." Sheesh...

As you can see, there's no New Democrat scheming behind Clark's announcement location, move along...

Now enter "Arkansan" Wesley Clark. Like Hillary Clinton, Clark is a Chicago transplant to Little Rock.

Move along!

Fast forward to the Kosovo wars when Clark was NATO commander. Not only did Clark lord over the first unprovoked aerial bombardment of a major European city (Belgrade) since Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe pounded virtually defenseless European cities, but he almost got into a shooting war with Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo. It was only the intervention of the British government, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Hugh Shelton that prevented Clark from starting World War III. When Clark ordered British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson to forcibly block Kosovo's Pristina Airport to prevent Russian planes from landing, the Briton replied, "Sir, I'm not starting World War III for you." Jackson was backed up all the way to Number 10 Downing Street. Clark was forced to back down. Eventually, Cohen fired Clark as NATO commander three months before his term was to expire.

The artistry with which Madsen compares Clark to Hitler is almost to be admired. Almost.

Antidotal corrects the rabid urban legend of Clark "almost starting WW3" with simple facts. Did you know that a few days after Jackson said his much-repeated line, he and Clark both went ahead and sent NATO troops to the Pristina Airport? From Antidotal:

Who was ultimately correct here? You might argue that Jackson was correct because they ended up resolving the situation diplomatically without needing the particular operation Clark had ordered. But we have empirical evidence that nothing close to a serious confrontation would have occurred had Clark's orders gone through: several days later, with the situation at Pristina still pretty much the same, both Clark and Jackson authorized French and British units to take positions at the airport. The troops got there. The Russians denied them access. Everyone stood around and radioed back to their commanders for further instruction. Then the NATO units left. Lo and behold, no one got shot. No massive diplomatic crisis. No World Wars began.

Imagine that. Carry on, Mr. Madsen:

Before becoming NATO Commander, Clark was the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy within the Joint Chiefs of Staff. From this vantage point, Clark was well aware of and likely supported the arming of the Bosnian government by accepting contributions from various deep-pocketed Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Jordan, and Egypt. Via something called the Bosnia Defense Fund, these countries deposited millions of dollars into U.S. coffers to buy weapons for the Bosnians and train them in their use through the use of private military contractors like Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI). And when some of the weapons and cash for the Bosnians became "unaccounted for," where did some of the guns and cash wind up? In the hands of Al Qaeda and Iranian Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) units in Bosnia.

What's that sound? It's the sound of someone RE-E-E-E-E-A-A-A-A-A-CHING.

Don't ya just love the way Madsen plays Six Degrees of Al Qaeda here? I suppose this is meant to sound like the Iran-Contra scandal, except for the part where the Bosnian Defense Fund was legal and the contra funding scheme was not.

More interestingly is how General Clark's Bosnia strategy ultimately goes full circle. According to Washington K Street sources, the law firm that established the Bosnia Defense Fund was none other than Feith and Zell, the firm of current Pentagon official and leading neo-con Douglas Feith. Feith's operation at Feith and Zell was assisted by his one-time boss and current member of Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle. Both Feith and Perle advised the Bosnian delegation during the 1995 Dayton Peace talks. The chief U.S. military negotiator in Dayton was Wesley Clark.

Furthermore, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and hid in a storage facility, while Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK in a storage facility and hid in a theater!

How exactly does Clark's 1995 role in the Dayton peace talks bring the events of 1999 full circle? Have the neo-cons developed time travel? What you've got is Feith, Perle, and Clark in the same room. Is this proof that Clark's a tool of the neo-cons? He was in the same room with them? God, just think what they're cooking up at the Gridiron Club!

After four years of Bush, the neo-con Fifth Column in the Democratic Party is trying to convince us that Clark is the "anti-war" candidate. Tell that to the people of Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro. Tell that to the coca farmer in Bolivia or Colombia who is trying to feed his family. Let's not fall for the deception and tricks of the neo-cons again. If you are tired of Bush, Cheney, and the neo-cons and their phony wars, Clark is certainly not the answer. He has been, and remains part of, the great deception of the American people.

Okay, enough with the "anti-war" candidate stuff. The general isn't "anti-war". The only people who are making him out to be an "anti-war" candidate are people who are too lazy to research what General Clark has actually said on the matter, or people who'd like to see the Democratic Party split. He views war as the last resort, and he also believes in the true power of diplomacy and international organizations. Wesley Clark is the general who will give peace a chance.

So what does Madsen have to prove that Clark is a tool of the neo-cons? Well, the New Democrats are happy he's in the race. And he was once in the same room with a neo-con. Along with a bunch of darkweaving, that's all he's got. Pitiful, isn't it?

Wesley Clark for President? Another Con Job from the Neo-Cons by Wayne Madsen
DraftClark: Wesley Clark Biography
Antidotal: Clark and Pristina Airfield