"It's a ship of fools. We're on the edge of a disaster."--WES CLARK

[FrenchieCat]

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Clark sweeps through state, assailing Bush

At stops in Ozark, Montgomery, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, the Democrat sounded traditional liberal themes on social issues and fired broadsides at the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Iraq and the nuclear crisis in North Korea.

"It's a ship of fools," Clark said. "We're on the edge of a disaster."

Clark said the goal of his series of stops in several Southern states is to help the party develop a strategy for competing in the South, where many of its candidates lag far behind the Republicans in polls. To that end, he made appearances with candidates including John Tyson, who is running for attorney general, and at party fund-raisers.

But most of his energy while in Birmingham was devoted to addressing what he said was a series of foreign-policy blunders by the Bush administration.

In an interview before a meeting of the Downtown Democratic Club, Clark repeated an allegation made in his book "Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire." He wrote that a general at the Pentagon told him 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that the Bush administration was already committed to invading Iraq. He declined to identify the general Friday.
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http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1160818006114590.xml&coll=2

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark questions foreign policy
TUSCALOOSA | Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a former and possibly future presidential candidate, took the Bush administration to task on practically all its foreign policy initiatives Friday.

“When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail," Clark told about 400 people at the second annual Frank A. Nix lecture, sponsored by the Blackburn Institute at the University of Alabama
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Clark said the administration must talk directly with North Korea, which says it tested a nuclear weapon last weekend.

“They want to come out of the cold on their terms," he said. “We may not agree with those terms, but are we so weak that we are afraid to talk to North Korea, that all we can do is hide behind China and threaten them?"

Direct talks with Iran, which has also shown signs of seeking nuclear weapons, would also be productive, Clark said.

“Maybe we could find some common interests," he said. “They probably don’t want a big war in Iraq, either.

“We’ve got to use our power to build relationships," he said. “To win the war on terror, you’ve got to have more friends than enemies in the world."
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Clark said Bush is playing into the hands of bin Laden, who has about 50,000 hardcore supporters behind him.

Bin Laden’s strategy, Clark said, is to encourage the U.S. to invade Iran and Syria.

“His strategy is to create zones of chaos and savagery," Clark said. “He wants more Iraqs … where he can go in and emerge with leadership.

“Why do we want to play his game, when it is totally against our interests?"

The Blackburn Institute was formed by former UA administrator John Blackburn and is composed of several dozen students.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the speaker at the first Nix lecture, named after the late educator Frank Albert Nix, last year.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061014/NEWS/610140337/1007/NEWS03