Clark: we've been "kicking in the door and roughing up the women" in Iraq

[Clarkie1]

Clark is pulling no punches. This is absolutely the best interview ever with Hannity. Hannity tries to counter-attack and Wes tears him to shreds!

General Wesley Clark on Hannity and Colmes
January 31, 2006

<snip>

Alan Colmes: One of the things he said, tonight he said “we're on the offensive in Iraq with a clear plan for victory” but I didn't hear…again, I didn't hear what the plan was.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, it's not. When you use phrases like offensive. You know, we're not going to go down, I hope we've gotten over the sort of kicking in the doors and roughing up the women that some people said that we did some of over there…

<Unidentified>: You think we did that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I have heard some soldiers say that some of that was done and I think that's really disturbing.

Hannity: If you heard that and you don't have any evidence, should you be repeating something like that, General?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I have heard our soldiers say that so I've been told that by our soldiers.

Hannity: Without any proof, though, do you think you should be repeating that about our soldiers?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: When a guy tells me something like that…I didn't say that was our policies, but I know that some of that did happen. So, what I'm telling you is <crosstalk>

Hannity: It seems irresponsible, General.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's not irresponsible. What's irresponsible is to use big broad phrases like “offensive” when, in fact, what we need to be doing in Iraq is getting a political solution. All of our generals will tell you that and so will the politicians.

Hannity: We, we are. Nobody thought that we'd go from a dictatorship to, ah, the sovereignty that's emerging or to the constitution or to the elections with all those purple fingers or the masses of people that went out to vote the way that they did. Nobody thought that was possible but we're not going to win on Iraq.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: What I want to say one thing. You know, I love the men and women in uniform. I honor what they're doing in Iraq. But, it's not going to be won militarily…no matter what we do. It could be lost militarily.

Hannity: So we can't win this war? So you're like Howard Dean. You don't think we're going to win the war?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We have to win it politically. <crosstalk>

Hannity: I think we win it both ways.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We have to talk the military power and use it to get political advantage in Iraq.

Hannity: So those elections didn't impress you.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, the elections gave us an opening but now what the elections showed is that the people who were Shia voted for the extremists and the people who are Sunnis voted for the Sunnis and…<crosstalk>

Hannity: General, I hear a lot of Howard Dean and John Kerry in you. Howard Dean said we can't win the war, in a lot of ways…<crosstalk>

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Let me just ask you this. Let me just ask you this. <crosstalk>

Hannity: No, no, let me just finish my question. You can't win it. And you're saying you have to win it politically, ah, John Kerry said that, you know, our troops were terrorizing women and children in the dark of night, now you're repeating that. <crosstalk> I'm surprised, I really am.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Sean, you know, first of all listen. I don't take guidance from…this is not political for me. I spent my lifetime in uniform. <crosstalk>

Hannity: I appreciate it.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I've studied these situations. I've talked to people all the time. I very carefully follow these events, so this is my judgment as a strategist. It has nothing to do with politics. <crosstalk>

Hannity: I would

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's not about ambition and it's not about partisanship.

Hannity: I understand that.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: But I'll tell you this. This country has to understand and respect others. <crosstalk> It cannot just go in and bulldoze countries. <crosstalk>

Hannity: If anybody would have told you that Saddam would be out of power, his sons would be dead, we would have had multiple elections, a constitution would be written, you have the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shia all seemingly beginning to come together in a way here and as Joe Lieberman pointed out it's really just a small fraction opposing this, I don't think anybody would have predicted it and you seem to take no good out of this at all and I'm shocked.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, actually you know, I predicted the invasion would be over in three weeks. I said we didn't have enough forces to really do the job afterwards. If you read my book I said I thought we'd handle this and we'd be out of here by now so I'm surprised at how poorly it's gone considering the overwhelming American preponderance of power but I think that our troops shouldn't be blamed for that. I think that our troops have done a great job. I think it comes to faulty policies.

Alan Colmes: We appreciate you being on the show tonight. Thank you sir.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Alan.

Alan Colmes: Good to see you once again. Thank you very much.

http://securingamerica.com/node/573

[neverevergivein]

1. Wes was too nice

He should have slugged Hannity for trying to set a trap and then trying to turn him against Howard Dean and John Kerry. We have to quit playing so nice. Just say it Wes and don't qualify it. If the soldiers did wrong, they did wrong. Don't obfuscate when challenged, go after him head on!

[SharonAnn]

3. Colmes was too "not there". Where did that quote come from?

[Clarkie1]

6. Read the transcript. There is also a video link at securingamerica.com

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. I DON'T CARE WHAT YA'LL POST

I'm still not watching this Nazi trained dog act... Build all the publicity for the show you want at DU but I refuse to watch or listen to reich-wing propaganda, except maybe to phone and write the sponsors to tell them normal middle of the road people like me will NEVER buy those products again!

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Scoundrel! Blackguard! Poltroon!

:evilgrin:

Most of us agree with you, but many political wonks like us occasionally watch these shows to get an idea of what kind of talking points, mantras, and "tactics" the Rectal Right is using.

Indeed, I've already talked several people out of buying Oreck vacuum cleaners and at least one out of buying a Dell computer.

Besides, Sean Hannity has such a crush on himself that he frequently makes remarks that are inadvertantly hilarious. He actually has a dating club! You just can't make stuff like that up.

--p!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

10. why pigwidge

they're all too damn stupid to change the rhetoric... I live in the Babble-belt and these CASHtain fools are still spouting the same garbage they did YEARS ago... Two dumb points that are NOT their business at all since they are supposedly straight white males.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Well, Wes has a little Class

I guess we should be happy he didn't accuse him of being a "fellow traveler" of Michael Moore, Jane Fonda, and "Saddama O'Laden".

--p!

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Can't the Conservatives find some NON-ignoramuses to speak?

Come on, there must be a couple of Conservatives who aren't snarky, ignorant "slacker dudes" in expensive suits.

They're all trainwrecks -- Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, Malkin, O'Reilly, and the rest. Pat Buchanan seems to be the best they have, and even he tried to be a wise-ass (concerning US-Israel policy), and came off like a Nazi in the process.

What is it with them?

--p!

[Rick Myers]

7. Insanity is NOT fit to shine General Clark's boots!!!

[katty]

9. Too Nice, Wes - Hannity deserves to KO'd ALL THE TIME

[CarolNYC]

11. Eh, I think Wes gets Hannity's goat every time...

Hannity is SO trying to draw Wes into a shouting match every time he's on...and Wes just won't go for it....He will not be drawn in. I think it drives Hannity nuts....

And Wes has got a mission, to get some truth out to the people who are watching who might be at least a little bit open to it...He's not there to shout or to knock Hannity out or to uphold his honor or anything like that...He's literally out there trying to save this damn country....

[sandnsea]

12. Shades of Winter Soldier

Maybe Clark is getting a little taste of what it was like for the Vietnam Veterans who were trying to tell the truth of that war and why that war will never be over until the military stops pretending these incidents have nothing to do with the leadership.

[Mark5]

13. IMHO he was a bit soft...

I wonder how general Schwarzkopf(regardles of his partisan leanings) would have handled Hannity specially after this remark;

"Hannity: No, no, let me just finish my question. You can't win it. And you're saying you have to win it politically, ah, John Kerry said that, you know, our troops were terrorizing women and children in the dark of night, now you're repeating that. <crosstalk> I'm surprised, I really am."

I think Schwarzkopf would have responded along these lines.

"While you sit in this cozy little air conditioned studio trying to get a rise out of me to boost your ratings, american boys and girls are still dying over seas due to a flawed plan constructed by the administration you so utterly defend,I am not sure if its tyour ego or you are just not man enough to admit when you are wrong, regardless yours and the administrations inability to accept their mistake is costing our boys and girls their life, furthermor and before you try to question my respect and devotion to the soldiers, wear the uniform for as long as I have and make the ssacrifices that I, and others have made, then, maybe you can talk to me about honor and irresponsabilty"

yes its crude and somewhat elementary, but audiences respond to that.This holier than thou attitude, can be improved on.

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Yeah, if he was a guest maybe. I've seen Clark do that

But as a commentater the rules are different, as I wrote about above on this thread. Different for BOTH sides by the way.

[Clarkie1]

15. O.K., I have a different take on this than most, I guess.

I thought he made Hannity look like a petty, pathetic, bumbling fool in the face a level of integrity, honor, and intelligence completely out of his league.

Anyone watching that, Democrat or Republican, saw something quite out of the ordinary for such a venue. They saw a man who does not makes his statements for partisan political purposes; they saw a man who simply speaks the truth. Hannity tried to turn the conversation partisan, and Clark wouldn't allow it. Clark was in complete control of that conversation from start to finish.