Wes Clark defends Obama: Generals 'don't rule Washington'
Barack Obama's overseas trip has drawn the almost exclusive attention of the media for the past week, leading the McCain campaign to attempt to regain the focus by attacking Obama's comments on General Petraeus as "disparaging."
Obama has acknowledged that General Petraeus has concerns about his plan to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq within 16 months, a concern which, as he explained at his press conference in Jordan on Tuesday, "has to do with [Petraeus] wanting to retain as much flexibility as possible."
Obama stressed, however, that as president he would have to maintain a broader view, and "there are a range of factors that I have to take into account as a ... potential commander-in-chief that I wouldn't expect General Petraeus, or anybody who's just on the ground, to have to take into account."
McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann was quick to attack Obama over these comments. "This is really an amazing statement," Scheunemann charged. "He believes that deferring to commanders on the ground is not the job of the commander-in-chief. ... He refuses to credit General Petraeus and General Odierno for their leadership. He disparages their strategic judgment and trumpets his own."
MSNBC's Dan Abrams played both Obama's and Scheunemann's statements for his guests in Verdict, asking Obama supporter General Wesley Clark, "What do you make of these critiques coming from the McCain camp?"
"I think [McCain] has to put up a fight," Clark replied. "He's not getting the press."
Abrams then asked Tara Wall, an editor with the conservative Washington Times, whether the McCain camp really means to charge that Obama "is being disrespectful to General Petraeus because he's saying he won't necessarily do everything that Petraeus would say he should."
"I think it leaves questions in the minds of voters," Wall responded, attempting to change the emphasis from withdrawal proposals to the surge. "I think it's great he acknowledged that security had improved, but he is obstinate to admit that the surge is working, a surge that he has fought against from the very beginning. ... He decided ... a long time ago that he opposed the surge, he opposed General Petraeus, and so he's trying to essentially flip-flop here, but there's no mistake about it. He doesn't believe the surge is working."
"I don't think that's what he said," Abrams' replied cautiously.
"It's a more nuanced argument," agreed legal analyst Catherine Crier. "He said the Sunnis made a decision to fight the insurgency and to fight al Qaeda. Sadr's army stood down. There were multiple factors and we couldn't solely credit the surge."
"But he won't admit that it has had an impact and it is working," Wall persisted. "Just to say, 'Yes, the surge is working, General Petraeus was right,' has yet to come out of his mouth."
"All of us in the military knew that if you put more troops in with competent commanders, you should be able to combat the violence and drive it out," Clark noted. "We still don't have the kind of political compromises that were promised."
Clark then focused more specifically on rebutting Scheunemann's remarks, emphasizing that if Obama becomes president, "as the commander-in-chief, he does not have to take the advice of the commander on the ground."
"As a general, you don't necessarily say, 'You have to listen to me,'" Abrams suggested.
"You don't rule Washington," Clark agreed. "I mean, what Barack Obama's saying is he appreciates General Petraeus's judgment, but he's got concerns that go beyond Iraq. ... Petraeus is in charge of ... one theater of this conflict, and what Barack Obama is saying is, 'I see it, I understand your concern about risks, it's my job to evaluate the trade-off.'"
Wall made one last attempt to bring the discussion back to the surge. "If you are saying to the commander-in-chief, 'Here is a strategy, I believe, that works, we need to try this, we should give it a shot' ... you would hope that that commander-in-chief would take that seriously."
"It sounds like what Tara is saying is, 'Shouldn't he at least say,"Yes,"'" Abrams remarked.
"He's not obligated to say that," Clark affirmed.
This video is from MSNBC's Verdict, broadcast July 22, 2008.
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