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Dispatches from Campaign
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Wesley
Clark's Loose Lips
Six quotes overheard
in New Hampshire.
By
Chris Suellentrop
Posted Monday,
Jan. 12, 2004, at 5:47 PM PT
Whether it's true or not, Gen. Wesley Clark's rise in the polls in New
Hampshire is being partly attributed to some voters having "cold feet"
about former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, especially Dean's penchant for
making statements that are quickly seized upon by Fox News or the
Republican Party as evidence of unpatriotic disloyalty. But Clark has the
same propensity for speaking imprecisely off the cuff. Here are some
statements I heard him make last week during my trip with him in New
Hampshire:
Bush was "warned" about 9/11? "President Bush didn't
do his job as commander in chief in the early months of his
administration. He was warned that the greatest threat to the United
States of America was Osama Bin Laden, yet on the 11th of
September in 2001, the United States had no plan for dealing with the
threat posed by Osama Bin Laden. The ship of state was on autopilot. There
were good CIA officers and FBI officers and everybody doing what they'd
been taught to do, but the essential leadership process of putting focus
on the resources of the United States, and giving these agencies a real
target and a mission, it wasn't done. At least, I think that's what the
evidence will show if we ever get the results of this presidential
commission, and if they've asked the right questions." (Jan.
6, McKelvie Middle School,
Bedford.)
Bush "never intended" to get Osama Bin Laden? "We
bombed Afghanistan, we missed Osama Bin Laden, partly because the
president never intended to put the resources in to get Osama Bin Laden.
All along, right after 9/11, they'd made their mind up, I guess, that we
were going to go after Saddam Hussein. That's what people in the Pentagon
told me. And they capped the resources, stopped the commitment to
Afghanistan, and started shifting to prepare to go after Saddam Hussein."
(Jan. 6, McKelvie Middle
School, Bedford.)
There wasn't a single terrorist in
Iraq before the war? "The
president was not and has not been held accountable yet for misleading the
American people. He is continuing to associate Saddam, Iraq, and the
problem of terrorism. Yet the only terrorists that are in Iraq are the
people that have come there to attack us." (Jan. 7,
Town House, Peterborough.)
Fifty-five million voters are "ill-informed" dupes of the
Christian right? "Now, there's one party in America that's made
the United Nations the enemy. And I don't know how many of you have ever
read that series of books that's published by the Christian right that's
called the "Left Behind" series? Probably nobody's read it up here. But
don't feel bad, I'm not recommending it to you. I'm just telling you that
according to the book cover that I saw in the airport, 55 million copies
have been printed. And in it, the Antichrist is the United Nations. And so
there's this huge, ill-informed body of sentiment out there that's just
grinding away against the United Nations." (Jan. 7,
Fuller Elementary School,
Keene.)
Does Islam need an Enlightenment or just Match.com?
"Young men in an Islamic culture cannot get married until they
can support a family. No job, no marriage. No marriage, unhappy young men.
They get real angry, they feel real frustrated, they feel real powerless.
And a certain number of them are being exploited in the mosques by this
recruiting network." (Jan. 8, Havenwoods Heritage Heights senior
center, Concord.)
President Bush doesn't even want to find Bin Laden?
"Newsweek magazine says he's in the mountains of western
Pakistan. And I guess if Newsweek could find him there, we could,
too, if we wanted to." (Jan. 8, Havenwoods Heritage Heights senior
center, Concord.)
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