Gen. Wesley Clark calls for exit from Afghanistan

By John Byrne
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 -- 8:51 am
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Wesley%20Clark Gen. Wesley Clark calls for exit from AfghanistanRetired Gen. Wesley Clark -- the onetime Democratic candidate for president -- told Congress Tuesday in little-reported remarks that the United States should begin planning for an exit from Afghanistan, breaking ranks with Obama's current Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The former Supreme Allied Commander of US forces Europe reminded Congress of the "legacy of Vietnam" in considering the US strategy in Afghanistan. Obama's commanders have called for an increase of as many as 60,000 troops in the war-torn country.

You've got to “figure out where you’re going," Clark told the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations. "How do we get out of here? Because our presence long term there is not a good thing. We’re playing into the hands of people who don’t like foreigners in a country that’s not tolerant of diversity. And that’s not going to change.”

Clark pressed Congress to begin devising an exit strategy from the country. He said that the US should strengthen its relationship with Pakistan and work with the Pakistani government to target al Qaeda, while diminishing its presence in neighboring Afghanistan. He also argued that economic development in Afghanistan was important.

If the US were to increase its forces in Afghanistan, Clark said, a exit strategy should be in place first.

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"The legacy of Vietnam really looms over these discussions," Clark said. "It's particularly painful for me to see where we are in Afghanistan."

Clark commanded an infantry battalion during the Vietnam War and was shot four times. He was awarded a Silver Star for his efforts in battle.

The retired general said he preferred a "minimalist" approach that would subvert Afghan terrorism, as some Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, have argued. Biden has asserted that the US should draw down its Afghan military presence and focus on the Taliban, while taking the fight to al Qaeda.

A Committee Democrat criticized Clark's approach, saying a focus on rebuilding Afghanistan was akin to former Vice President Dick Cheney's approach to Iraq.

Clark replied: "I'm not sure what the Cheney solution was to Iraq, but I can't associate myself with it."

"The primary issue," Clark said, "is get the stategy exactly right."

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  • Octavio Saenz MD Sr
    Most Reverently, please submit This Message personally also to Our Dear General Wesley Clark. Thank you!
    OUR “MOST BELOVED” AMERICA’S MOST SATANIC ANTI-AMERICAN RELIGIONISM!
    Most Reverently, This Most Earnest Patriotic Appeal was also submitted to both All The Presidents of The Universities, and to Their Provosts – submitted to both personally.
    UNIVERSAL RELIGIONISM !!!
    This Most Loving Prayer was also addressed to Pope Benedict XVI – Most Faithfully!
    This is about The Most Criminal, World Wide, RELIGIONISM – Ever!
    All that Our Whole World has ever needed - and still presently needs, foremost and more than ever – is A TRULY AMERICAN National Incorrupt Reevaluation!
    “HAPPY HOLIDAYS”!!!
    “MERRY CHRISTMAS”!!!
    “HAPPY NEW YEAR”!!!
    “HAPPY NEW CENTURY!!!”
    ALMIGHTY GOD’S “NUCLEAR” WORLD’S TRUE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY; THAT IS, UNIVERSAL INDIVIDUAL EQUAL HUMAN OPPORTUNITY TO ACHIEVE ALMIGHTY GOD-GIVEN HUMAN RIGHTS (HIS “BEST” “GIFTS”), - NO-MORE AND NO-LESS - shall never exist for us in “Our America”, and in our “Free” “Nuclear” World, UNTIL BOTH MOST CRUCIAL GOD’S DETERMINANTS – UNIVERSAL FUNCTIONAL LITERACY AND UNIVERSAL “GOD-SAMARITAN” HEALTH INSURANCE – are Legislatively COMPELLED (CONSTITUTIONALLY) as a Fully-Punishing TRULY HUMANITARIAN CRIMINAL LAW; that is, until Our Insatiable Ultra Filthy-Wealthy CORPORATIST “American” Government so give The True Example, OF SUCH A SACRED UNIVERSALLY HUMAN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, for the sake of Our Most Exploited and Most Suffering Illiterate and Sick “American” World!
    Almighty God did not write HIS BIBLE just to “Inspire” The Implacable Religionist “Sacrosanct” Church-like Corporations of This World to use IT as toilet paper – that is, to use IT as Such a Globalized, Religionist, Materialist, PIOUSLY MUM, AND SO ULTIMATELY EQUALLY SUICIDAL-TERRORIST, SUBLIMINAL INHUMAN EXPLOITATION!
    Why “THE TRULY UNIVERSAL CHURCH” - as “FREE AND SEPARATE FROM THE STATE” - NEVER TAKES ALL OF THESE, AS ITS TRUE DAILY PREACHING INITIATIVE – AS ITS TRUE RELIGIOUS LEADERS DID BEFORE???!!! BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ANY- MORE “THE TRUE SERVANTS OF ALMIGHTY GOD” (AS THEY SO “FERVENTLY” CLAIM) BUT OF THE GOVERNMENTAL “MOST COMFORTABLE” RAPACIOUS CORPORATIST MOST INHUMAN WORLD POLITICS OF EXPLOITATION!!!
    WHY ABSOLUTELY NOBODY SAY ANYTHING – SPECIALLY AT THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTIONS’ TIME -- ABOUT DENOUNCING AND UPROOTING ONCE AND FOR ALL OUR EVER ANTI-AMERICAN AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC MOST SHAMELESSLY “HIDDEN” EVER HIGHEST LEVEL OF OUR WORLD’S ILLITERACY AND LACK OF “GOD-SAMARITAN” MOST BASIC HEALTH INSURANCE!
    THE TRUTHFULNESS EVER MISSING IN ALL OF OUR POLITICAL SPEECHES PRETENDING TO “HONOR” OUR MOST BELOVED AMERICA – AND MOST SORELY MISSING FOR OUR SALVATION – IS THE TRULY POLITICAL AND TRULY RELIGIOUS TRULY DEMOCRATIC INSPIRATION!
    WHY ARE WE SO SILENT AND OBSTINATE?
    MAY WE TRULY PRAY THAT WE ALL TRUE SOLID AMERICANS REALLY ENABLE ALMIGHTY GOD TO BLESS (SAVE) OUR MOST BELOVED TRUE AMERICA!!!
    OTHERWISE, ANY OTHER “CRIME” OR “ABORTION” IS AN “INNOCENT” BY-PRODUCT!!!
  • suzisunshine
    mcchrystal should have been fired for insubordination when he went to the press before speaking w/ his Commander in chief!
  • The Afghan army will never be turned into a top fighting force unless they are paid and fed. The funds allocated to the military never gets beyond the generals. Only a penny for every dollar in U.S. aid gets spent properly. Ordinary soldiers have to sell their rifles and steal in order to survive. Corruption in the government and among the generals is on the increase. The will to fight must be restored. Soldiers that have sold their weapons cannot be sent into battle. Corruption has become the only enemy and it must be defeated.
  • Miggy
    Name 0 minutes ago
    I wonder what took him so long to come out from under that rock he was hiding in.

    The Illegal Wars can never end. The MIC, CIA, Banksters, Industrialists and Globalists have all seen to that.

    To do so would mean the beginning of investigations into Torture, War Profiteering and the pillage of the last 10 years not to mention last 87 years or so since the creation of The Federal Reserve.

    The incremental "Quiet Fascism" that has seeped into and taken over our once Great Nation is disgusting. We've lost our souls.

    "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
    living together in society,
    they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

    Frederic Bastiat, (1801-1850)
  • Name
    I wonder what took him so long to come out from under that rock he was hiding in.

    The Illegal Wars can never end. The MIC, CIA, Banksters, Industrialists and Globalists have all seen to that.

    To do so would mean the beginning of investigations into Torture, War Profiteering and the pillage of the last 10 years not to mention last 87 years or so since the creation of The Federal Reserve.

    The incremental "Quiet Fascism" that has seeped into and taken over our once Great Nation is disgusting. We've lost our souls.

    "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
    living together in society,
    they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

    Frederic Bastiat, (1801-1850)
  • puredemocracy
    Finally some common sense advice on the Afgan invasion. 100 al Qaeda in Afganistan, and McCrystal says he needs 100,000 or more troops to go after them! We need to strip all the war profiteering military brass of their rank, medals, and pensions, and give them dishonorable discharges. And like wise we must prohibit any government official from ever lobbying or otherwise profiteering after leaving government. Only then will these endless invasions of third world countries stop. Only then will the 12 trillion dollar theft by the war industry complex stop growing.
  • Satan
    Yeah, Wesley the war pig is the last person that should be involved in an exit strategy, may the fucker burn in hell. What's his exit strategy, bomb a bunch of hospitals before leaving? Fuck that prick.

    The U.S. should have been out of Afghanistan years ago, we murder piles of civilians for every person we can get away with labeling as being a member of Al Qaeda or one of the many different Taliban organizations.
  • thx1138a
    .
    FORMER NATO CHIEF CLARK PREPS FOR 2012 PRESIDENTIAL RUN

    -- Uber General To Unite Hawks and Doves Via Four Stars and Common Sense --

    -- Promises To Fulfill All Unfulfilled Obama Campaign Promises: Gitmo, Iraq, Afghanistan --
    .


    .

    .
  • s2e
    we are guilty by association
  • dennycrane
    Blow up the poppies and get the hell out.
  • thx1138a
    Blow up the CIAs #1 cash crop?!
  • bobdevo
    McChrystal should be facing courts-martial charges for knowingly falsifying records and then perjuring himself before Congress in the Pat Tillman friendly-fire coverup.
  • kayttt2000
    That's not all he's guilty of..

    This boy is wrapped in ILLEGAL ATROCITIES!
  • Hundreds of autonomous tribes led by ferocious chieftains roam Afghanistan. Their camels carry, rifles, mortars and explosives. They will kill to protect their private oasis. Unless they are disarmed and brought under control, Afghanistan will never be united. President Karzai and his cabinet must take a vacation from fattening their bank accounts. As ferocious tribal leaders they should once again ride their camels to a glorious victory against dissidents and infidels.
  • edwards_com
    They will be United to plot revenge against the aggressor that store their property.
  • OldAtlantic
    Warning, in this country camels carry. No permit required.
  • dennycrane
    I think it is disrespectful to Camels to compare them to "nut jobs" that have small penises that hide behind guns.
  • OldAtlantic
    Not all camels are Islamofascists. Not all Islamofascists ride camels. But those who love Islamofascist camels are themselves Islamofascist.
  • OldAtlantic
    Take out Iran and Pakistan's nuclear capability and get out. Remove the WMD capacity of Islam on-site. American soliders are better used establishing Christianity in Mecca than in Afghanistan.
  • edwards_com
    What do soldiers have to do with some Religious issues?
  • OldAtlantic
    That's why they are there. That's why there was 9/11. That's why there was Fort Hood. You may not care about the religion of Islam, but Islam will make you care about it one way or the other.
  • edwards_com
    Is that like Good Christians Murdering over a million innocent Iraqis in their Bogus war for their Jesus? Jesus TOLD Bush et all to do it.
  • dennycrane
    Your "crusades" really worked before. Why don't you gather up all your "friends" and show us how it's done. Your "buddy" eric prince and his "fringe" fighters look cool hanging from bridges upside down. Sort of "festive", like a "GI Joe piñata."
  • OldAtlantic
    You shouldn't want to see your own humiliated. It detracts from your advice about war.
  • bobdevo
    Get back on your medications. Pakistan is our ally, and taking out their nukes would require all-out bombing.
  • OldAtlantic
    Pakistan is Bush's ally. That should tell you something. Bush covered for Pakistan after 9/11, after they killed Daniel Pearl, after they ordered Christina Lamb out of the country.

    The ground invasion of Iraq took under 200 lives. We can invade Iran and surround and blockade Pakistan. Pakistan was facing financial ruin from US sanctions on 9/11.
  • marzi
    The US is planning permanent bases in Afghanistan so it can give tax payers' money to Halliburton and Blackwater - and ensure the flow of heroin into areas in the US with high unemployment like Harlem.

    It's good that Clark calls for an exit strategy as he also calls for a new 9/11 investigation.
  • Pickerl
    Thats right. Plan an exit and use it. Bring all soldiers back home from everywhere and post them on a rotation on the North and South boarders. Let's buil bases on the borders and only allow DOCUMENTED people to enter and exit.
  • edwards_com
    I think the Soviets tried that in Berlin.
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