I am of the opinion that if Clark would not have forced debate on the issue of Iran day in, day out, for the last few years, Iran would not be discussed in the way that it currently is.....a way not so favorable to Bush, PNAC and the NeoCons as it could have been, and as they had planned.
Of course, a lot has to do with being bogged down in Iraq....but considering who is President, that wouldn't necessarily stop them with their pre-planned grand design, and to date, there is still no guarantees. The chances however of Bush being able to pull it off (an air strike doesn't require a large military.....so our Soldiers in Iraq might not mean much to these folks)...are not as high as they once were.
The Iran Issue was initially a country on a list drawn up by PNAC's Neocons....and a country included in the labeled Axis of Evil in Bush's 2002 SOTUS.
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/14130/index.phpWes Clark wrote about this plan in his book written in early 2003, and offered a warning shot at the bow of congress, as he participated in his first debate in September of 2003 as he entered the Primaries--Some of us were too busy debating whether Clark was or was not a "real" Democrat to have really heard clearly enough what he was articulating then....
"This administration's preemptive doctrine is CAUSING North Korea and Iran to ACCELERATE their nuclear weapons development. Now there are some of us who aren't in Washington right now, but I'd like to ask all those who are...lets see some leadership in the United States Congress. Let's see you take apart that doctrine of preemption NOW. I don't think we can wait until November 2004 to change the administration on this threat. We're marching into another military campaign in the Middle East. We need to stop it." Wesley K. Clark, 2003 Primary Debate
And by that I mean concrete work on behalf of Wes Clark--Wes talking to members of congress on background on this for some time
http://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/02/maxine_waters_on_hardball_wes.htmlClark discussing his warnings on Iran with those who can included the topic as part of the debate
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_02/008153.phphttp://www.mydd.com/story/2007/2/3/151316/2141Wes making a pointed splash with harsh words on the Huffington pages that culmulated in his being targeted by the Republican Jewish Coalition and by every Jewish NeoCon writing for the media, including the Lieberman media wing, TNR.
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/118265.htmlhttp://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/27/6786/carter.asp?nid=6786&wid=27http://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/01/wes_clark_and_the_new_york_mon.htmlhttp://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/02/the_new_york_sun_confirms_it_j.htmlhttp://www.rjchq.org/media/pdf/wesclarkad-1.pdfconstantly bringing up the refrain that we should be talking to Iran, to the point that other politicos have now adopted quite a few of his views.....word for word.....
"General Wesley Clark began the drumbeat calling for direct contact with Iran." http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29624http://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/02/wes_clark_on_iran_information.htmlhttp://www.rapidfire-silverbullets.com/2007/01/iran_and_us_politics_the_good.htmlwhich has had some "adjusting" and "toning down" their Rethorics....
As an example:
Before -
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/world/?content_id=5400After -
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/18/politics/p163857S76.DTLAnd also...Wes Clark doing what he can to sound the alarm to the netroot community...by literally blogging about it himself......
http://www.crooksandliars.com/category/democratic-party/wesley-clark/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/1/115124/5806and Bring it up consistently on Fox where he has a national voice...
http://securingamerica.com/taxonomy/term/23The truth is that when you type "Wesley Clark Iran" into googles, one gets 46 pages of reference
http://www.google.com/search?q=Wesley+Clark+iran&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&pwst=1&start=0&sa=NWes Clark has discussed Iran and kept it as a point of debate until his recommendation that Iran be given a seat at the table when dealing with Iraq and when dealing with Iran's possible Nuclear ambitions was put in as a recommendation in the Baker Commission report (yes.....Wes was talking about that by his lonesome way before the Baker commission was ever even established. But Bush ain't having none of it).
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29624If Wes Clark had not taken such an offensive approach on Iran, there might not be the kind of talk that we are now finally hearing from the corporate media-
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-US&q=war+with+iranBy that I mean that the News media is now countering the notion of any type of offensive against Iran as something not required or recommended; and even our usually reactive congress is talking proactively about curtailing Bush's power on this specific issue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/washington/30cnd-congress.html Sure, we still have the "Pushers" selling their ware......
MSNBC Scarborough Country transcript from Tuesday, Feb. 6 where Joe Scarborough and his panel talk about "whether we‘re one step closer to a coming war with Iran. That country blames the United States for kidnapping an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad. Is it more saber rattling on the part of the Iranian government, or is it the final straw in an inevitable showdown?"
Here is the Scarborough Country video link to watch the interesting debate:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=B6F7C0BF-83AE-469E-A401-03A4360D1D79&f=00&fg=email But also just look at how the debate is transforming.....
http://www.alternet.org/tags/iran/http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001200.phpI realize that Wes Clark is not the only one to have talked about this issue of Iran. His good friend Sy Hersh has been sounding the bell as well....but bottomline is that I believe that Wes Clark has changed the direction of this one topic....and for the better. The Hate talk against Iran has significantly abaited, and has been replaced with a more sensible debate on the issue that looks at the long term..
Sooooo....I said all of this to say, I think that Wes Clark deserves some admiration and a lot of our respect. For being someone that the media rarely ever discusses.....
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2005/05/clark_comes_bac.htmlI will tell you that Wes Clark is effective and doing work for this country that has much more significance than a Book Tour or Photo Ops.
Iran and 2008
http://jbulworth.blogspot.com/2007/02/2008-and-iran.htmlWes Clark will be in Saudi Arabia for the next few days...and I'm sure that Iran will again be words that he utters to whomever will listen....and in this case, it will be the world stage:
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/news_view.phtml?news_id=2023But when he comes back from the summit, Clark hosts a public conference "Nuclear Weapons in a New Century" at the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA
Nuclear Weapons in a New Century: Facing the Emerging ChallengesMarch 6 and 7, 2007 Covel Commons, UCLA Campus
http://www.awesclarkdemocrat.com/2007/02/clark_hosts_public_conference.htmIf you don't think Iran is part of the challenges that we must face...and yes, Clark has already mentioned that we may have to understand that we will not be able to start war with countries just because they have nuclear aspirations and that we need to look at the considerations of living with such. (damn....that's pretty daring considering the current CW on this!)
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For one who is not in congress, has not taken not one thin dime from us since his retirement in 2000.....Wes Clark really continues to perform services for us; services needed. There is more that Wes Clark has done, issues that he has effected.....and so this may be just one of a series...... ;)