Reply #114: Here we go again.

[LandOLincoln]

It was not Clark's decision to depend on an air war, but Bill Clinton's {& for god's sake, use your brain. Clark is an ARMY general, armored branch. Do you really think he'd cheerfully concede the conduct of the war to the Air Force if he had a choice in the matter??}

IIRC Clinton was reluctant to intervene in Kosovo, but was convinced by Madeleine Albright and by Wes Clark, among others. Once committed to that course of action, Clinton made the colossal mistake of announcing at the outset that he would not use ground troops. Further, he's a big enough man (as opposed to the mental and moral pygmy who currently pollutes the White House) to have admitted later that that decision was the single worst public policy mistake of his presidency.

So, after many weeks of bombing with the concomittent civilian casualties and with no concession from Milosevic, Clark was more convinced than ever of the necessity for ground troops. Denied any support for this plan from the White House or the Pentagon, it's said that Clark began to plan--on his own time and his own dime--for such an eventuality.

It's also said that this refusal to accede to their idiocy was the source of Clark's problems with Cohen and Shelton--neither of whom had a fraction of Clinton's generosity of spirit and/or political skills--and ultimately led to his 3-month early "retirement." Never mind that word of Clark's extracurricular plans for a ground invasion may well have been the proximate cause of Milosevic's sudden and unexpected capitulation in June of 1999.

BTW, Joe Ralston, the morally compromised (he'd had an adulterous affair) Air Force general who "succeeded" Clark as SACEUR, now works for Bill Cohen's consulting firm. Que sorpresa, que no?

Yeah, Wes Clark is "weird" and "creepy." He's a Boy Scout in a world of petty, brutal capos and mindless button men. Better, he's a pre-1960's Democrat in a political world that's all and always about revenge for the sixties at the hands of a bunch of fat, homely creeps who couldn't get laid for love nor money in the most licentious, rebellious period in living sexual history.

Wes, in sheer and utter contrast, is a gorgeous, sexy hunk who's been dotty in love with--and faithful to--the same magnificent woman since his early 20s, despite a constant stream of adoring, compliant females all too eager to separate him from his virtue.

And God, how they hate him for that. In the end it comes down to jealousy. Simple, appalling, and true. Barry McCaffrey knows whereof he speaks.

******

Oh yeah--& Happy Birthday, Jimmy Doug. :loveya: