Wesley Clark: U.S. Support for Israel in War on Hezbollah a 'Serious Mistake'

Thanks to an alert reader, we'd like to direct your attention to a speech that Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark delivered at The University of Alabama on Friday. The former presidential candidate and current military analyst for Fox News had this to say about U.S. foreign policy and the Israeli war with Hezbollah:

There's a lot of demonstrations out there against the American government and its policies. We've made some serious, serious mistakes, the latest being - it's hard to pick the latest - but one of them, recently, was the one where we sided with the Israelis in that air campaign in Lebanon. And instead of stopping the bombing, we were cheerleading it. It hurt Israel, it hurt Lebanon, and it hurt us. It helped Iran.

This is some scary rhetoric that holds the possibility of serious implications for the U.S.-Israel relationship. We research his statements and found an August 1 interview where Clark said, "We don’t believe in reckless bombing. We believe in humanitarian assistance. We believe in ending quarrels by the peaceful settlement of disputes and we believe in the use of war only as a last resort." The two statements square up pretty well, so this wasn't an instance where Clark somehow 'misspoke'.

We want to know if Clark acknowledges that Israel is a strategic ally, and if so, what would the implications have been for Israel and other allies had the U.S. had turned a blind eye to Iran's attack by proxy? Does he acknowledge the Lebanese government refuses to implement Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarming of Hezbollah, and that had it been implemented there would never have been a war? Finally, does Clark find inconsistencies in his positions vis-à-vis previous arguments he made that Hezbollah must be disarmed, and his new position that the U.S. should have forced a ceasefire, bearing in mind that the Lebanese government refuses to disarm Hezbollah (and until recently, assert its sovereignty over the entire country)?

Israel remains our most reliable ally in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean. Allies such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey all have a record of denying the U.S. military use of their facilities. Moreover, the stability of their regimes cannot be taken for granted as all of them grapple with modernization and are threatened to various degrees by Islamic extremists. Israel is one of the few countries in the world that does not see U.S. primacy in international affairs as a troubling phenomenon. Unlike much of the world, Israel isn't preoccupied with how to tame American power.

So here's a lesson in foreign policy and the war on terror for Clark... you don't leave a friend like that standing alone when they are fighting against a terror organization that has killed more Americans than any group other than al-Qaeda, and you recognize that Israel could have attacked the government of Lebanon, but chose to restrain itself to a limited campaign against the terrorists.

Comments

[Aaron]

This is really troubling. Is this how Clark would treat our allies in England, Taiwan and South Korea also? He's basically saying "America should have let Israel be struck by Hizballah without consequences. We need to stop trying to find distinctions between 'terrorists' and their victims..."

If Clark's view of American interests, American values, and geopolitics is this distorted, that is reason enough to oppose any further attempts by him to gain the presidency. Anyway how did a man with such bizarre views come to be one of the highest ranking officers in our military?

[robert whitehill]

Wesley Clark is really saying this: it's OK to screw Israel because Jews do not blow themselves up in restaurants, subways, hotels, country clubs, buses, airplanes or schools. Even in the wake of the Holocaust, has a Jew ever blown up a German resaturant? Thus, he can call on the Free World to abandon Israel and not fear any violent response.

Of course, if the Free World (further) abandons Israel, the Islamic world will be joyful--for a while--until the next cartoon or the next "incident" that will tick it off and send it rolling back into psychotic frenzy.

The Jews lived 2000 years in the diasporas of Europe and the MIddle East--and behaved themselves the entire time--

Of course, they were falsely acused of all sorts of evils-child sacrifice, poisoining wells. But from the likes of Clark and others in the US and in Europe, it seems that a little bit of terrorisim might have paid off--they might have been able to return to Israel centuries earlier--because the West cowers before terrorism in any form --and Clark and others are prime examples of that fact.

[Bekarov Beyamenu]

It is neither the existence of Israel nor the world's dependency on oil that is central to the Middle East unrest.
The vested interests of Tyrants dominate the Moslem political arena. It is they who finance the pitiful, indoctrinated, terrorists, hoping that they will aid in warding off the march of Democracy, that would, surely, herald their eventual downfall.
Time and time again bigots and demagogues tend to exploit the 'Jewish Problem' to promote their own narrow vested interests. The Jewish scapegoat and Democratic Israel are shamelessly exploited while most of the benighted Arab populations of the Middle East are still deprived of basic human rights. The Despotic leaders of Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, who have failed to prevent severe economic and military plights, are also orchestrating the ecstatic zeal, of inflamed mobs, spewing hatred of the “corruptive Western Democracies”. These regimented outbursts usually peter-out and leave these unfortunate badly exploited Moslems mired in destructively spent euphoria
The uninspiring example of present Arab leadership holds out little hope of improving the political and religious agonies of the Moslem world.
The opportunist autocratic leaders, of most Arab countries, would do well to heed 'the writing on the wall' and move in the direction of converting their regimes into more humane and democratic systems.
The Hamas Leaders, regretfully, responding to the dictates of their Despotic Financiers, are embroiled in megalomaniac practices that are detrimental to the pursuit of the best interests of his people.
Rather than opting for the destruction of Israel and the sacrifice of their youth in the process, the Palestinians would be better served by demanding of their “Supportive Arab Middle East Leaders” enfranchisement of their own citizens and a fairer distribution of the abundant natural resources they exploit so avidly.
The dissipation of Palestinian and Arab wealth on personal indulgences, political strife and sacrilegious declarations of 'Jihad', in face of the dire needs of the Arab multitudes, should no longer be condoned by the civilized populace of this world; least of all should it be tolerated by the Arab people.

[M.Capulus]

Clark is the latest high profile figure to be infected with a 'mind virus' that's been going around for quite awhile now, and it's similar to AIDS. The victims are unable to distinguish friend from foe, even when their life - or their nation's life - is at stake. It's always fatal.

I call it Malignant Pacifism.

[Conservative Voice]

General Wesley Clark is in fact General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove. His election would not have been a merely political disaster, it would have spelled the end of the world. During the Clinton campaign to assist Islamist Albanian forces against Serbia, Clark gave orders to attack Russian forces occupying the airport. The Brits, thank goodness, didn't obey that unlawful order.

Clark is seriously mentally ill. Only a Clinton could bring such a monstrosity up through the ranks. Keep in mind that if the she-Clinton is elected president she will put General Ripper-Clark in a major post. Perhaps that is why so many prophecies have the world ending in 2012.

Fuck you Wesley Clark. Anti Semetic fuck.

[Retired LTC]

This is all nonsense. Clark has always been extremely supportive of Israel. In fact, when the bombing first started, he said Israel had every right to confront Hizbollah in southern Lebanon. If you listen to what he's said since (and all the videos are available at the WesPAC webiste, he has only been critical of Israel's reliance on its air campaign, with an unwillingness or inability to commit ground forces in sufficient numbers and with the appropriate objectives. Many of the same criticisms he's had, quite correctly, about the war in Iraq. It's no surprise he would call Bush to account for "cheerleading the bombing" without doing anything effective to resolve the problem.

Wes Clark is no anti-Semite. As a matter of fact, his father was Jewish and he is quite close to his father's family, who were instrumental in convincing him to run back in 2003.

[Roger]

There are plenty anti-Semites in this world who had the Jewish fathers. Clark is not made of the presidential material. Anyone, who thinks that an attack on organization (Hezbollah) responsible for the murders of over 200 US marines in Lebanon was a mistake has a serious gap in understanding the current war on terror.

[jimmy]

Dudes an idiot

[Retired LTC]

That's certainly true, Roger, but Clark is not one of 'em.

From a military perspective, it makes no sense whatsoever to bomb anyone if you're not willing or able to carry thru to accomplish some political objective. Even the Likudniks in Israel have recognized that the bombing of Lebanon was a huge mistake. It only strengthened Hizbollah, as well as Iran by proxy, and weakened the Lebanese governement's ability to resist either one.

[TrueJewish]

I am Pro Israel and I am Jewish but I agree with Wesley Clark's comment on the Israel bombing. It was a huge mistake and caused more people against Israel. This is a common sense issue. I know Israel has to show muscle but they went over the line I thought. Wesley Clark is pro Israel but he is also pro common sense which Israel sometimes lacks.