Clark ran afoul of Pentagon Bosses and lost his job
One of the most damning charges against retired Gen. Wesley Clark has also been the vaguest. After Clark entered the Democratic race last September, Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that Clark had been sacked as commander of NATO forces after the 1999 Balkans war because of “integrity and character issues.” Shelton has refused to comment further, and Clark’s civilian boss, the then Defense Secretary William Cohen, has also remained silent.
The doubts raised by Clark’s own bosses have cast an uneasy pall over his presidential candidacy. What really happened? According to a knowledgeable source, Clark ran afoul of Cohen and Shelton by being less than totally forthcoming in morning conference calls during the Kosovo war in the spring of 1999. From his NATO headquarters in Brussels, Clark wanted to wage the war more aggressively, but back in the Pentagon, Cohen and Shelton were more cautious. They would give Clark instructions on, for instance, the scale of the bombing campaign. “Clark would say, ‘Uh-huh, gotcha’,” says NEWSWEEK’s source. But then he would pick up the phone and call [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair and [Secretary of State] Madeleine [Albright].” As Clark knew full well, Blair and Albright were more hawkish than Shelton and Cohen. After talking to the State Department and NATO allies, Clark would have a different set of marching orders, says the source, who has spoken about the matter with both Cohen and Clark. “Then, about 1 o’clock, the Defense Department would hear what Clark was up to, and Cohen and Shelton would be furious.”
Kerry is going to be the front-runner just through simple process of elimination here. Eliminate the most ridiculous and you’ll be left with the least foolish of the lot of fools.
Two things about Clark:
1) I eagerly look forward to learning what Gen. Shelton was referring to in his remarks. It’s amazing to me that it has been kept secret for so long.
2) How that man got to be a general is beyond me. The only explanation I can think of is that he actually did get promoted to that rank on his merits, but whatever caused him to get fired loosened a screw, causing the behavior that we’re witnessing now.
Addendum: I’ve always maintained that a military person gets to be a colonel by being a good soldier; he gets to be a general by being a good politician. He may have been a good soldier at some point, but from what I can see today he sure as hell ain’t much of a politician!
Frankly, I can’t really see where he’s much of a soldier either. He almost always seems to be talking publicly against war, and uses his wartime status usually for some type of goofy clout, such as barking at Tom Brokaw to “be careful” when Brokaw boldly made the obvious observations of his self-contradicting POV on the War in Iraq.
JMO, of course, but I would think Edwards would be the most likely frontrunner through the process of elimination. He certainly seems to have the cleanest nose of the bunch, at least as far as I know, and he does have that wholesome, squeaky-clean JFK-look about him…
If nothing else, the actions of Clark prove that he is not a team player! And according to his son, Wesly rebuilt the army after Vietnam, so maybe he just appointed himself to general.