Wes Clark was speaking at the Center for Politics and Foreign Relations, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), at The Johns Hopkins University yesterday when he gave a rather long speech. This is only a very small portion of what he said. In it, he refers to our invasion of Iraq, and how in the past we might have gotten away with certain actions that weren’t the best of ideas (coups, etc...). However, he strongly believes that this time, in reference to Iraq, we’ve gone simply way too far.
Here’s an excerpt- and the audio can be heard here
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/media/may07/wesleyclark051607.mp3(His answers during the Q&A at the end of the speech are really quite incredible, IMO--holding the administration accountable, his views on partitioning Iraq, the difference between Kosovo vs. Iraq, and what each of us need to do during the political election season to advance the debate on Iraq for the good of America, Iraq, and everyone else involved.)
“there are hundreds of millions, billions out there who watch the United States. They observe our actions in the world. They hear our rhetoric. They're not committed enemies, but they're not necessarily our friends yet. And if we want to succeed in the world, we've got to win over these people, at least to the legitimacy of our aims and purposes.
Right now,
we've lost a crucial underpinning of America's safety, security and ultimate well being. <>
It is our legitimacy as a nation.<>
Today, the evidence shows we've lost much of this. I don't have to site the poll after poll after poll over the last five years. You see them - the Pew polls, the BBC polls, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs polls. They show that, here's one in- published in March,
"The United States is viewed more as negative than in positive in world Affairs" - 51 percent of the people. In 27- 28,000 people in 27 countries view the United States as a more negative than positive force in world affairs. We're ranked lower than North Korea. Ten out of fifteen countries in a Chicago Council of Global Affairs poll show that
the most common view is the United States cannot be trusted to act responsibly in world affairs. <>
How did we lose legitimacy?
First of all,
we distorted, overplayed, exaggerated the threat. This was not a defensive war. It was an elective war. America chose to go to war when any reasonable look at the intelligence, even at the time, would've said, 'This is not a necessary war.' Then in our haste to go to war, we didn't even go to war as a last resort. We pushed it. We didn't allow time for the completion of the inspections. We didn't ask for and demand a second UN Security Council resolution.
We pushed it. We had a timeline in mind.When we went to war, we used a terrible terminology for this.
"Shock and Awe," coupled by a statement by an American General that "we don't count Iraqi casualties" - what, they're not people? They don't count? The thin veneer of the UN resolution that we had may have provided an element of legality, but it did not provide legitimacy.
After we reached Baghdad,
we failed to take due care to protect noncombatants and property. As the insurgency began, we didn't protect the civilian population. We pressured the civilian population. When we took detainees in and had them under our control. We apparently did some things that we should never have done, and when it came out at Abu Ghraib, instead of cutting to the quick of it and ending it, we dissimulated and dallied when urgent action to the very source of that unacceptable conduct was required.
We were unable to even follow through on the original purposes of the operation except insofar as removing Saddam Hussein from power.
We lost all sense of proportion between ends and means, and even today we're engaged in a military surge that the administration would like to see an open ended commitment, which as actually a participation in an ongoing Iraqi civil conflict. We violated virtually every principle of Just War doctrine. It's in Christian thought. It's in Islamic thought. And it's in the common sense of ordinary people all around the world, and we violated that.
http://securingamerica.com/node/2425