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American Morning

Interview with Presidential Candidate Wesley Clark

Aired November 06, 2003 - 08:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The situation in Iraq has been a focus in the presidential campaign of Democratic General Wesley Clark. The retired general pushing a four point post-war plan. He's scheduled to deliver a major policy speech today in South Carolina. But before he does that, he joins us this morning.
Nice to see you, General Clark.

Thanks for joining us.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (D), (RET.) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Soledad.

Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Iraq. Word from the Pentagon, of course, as you well know, 100,000, potentially, new troops, fresh troops being brought in to relieve some of the folks who are already in Iraq.

How do you think that fits in with your four point plan that you're going to sort of flesh out a little bit more today?

CLARK: Well, this rotation that the Pentagon is planning has to occur because these troops that they're replacing have already been in Iraq for a year. This is a volunteer force and the volunteer force is under tremendous stress right now. In fact, the latest moves by the Pentagon to take away funding on bases for schools, to take away commissary privileges, strike at the very heart of what makes the military distinctive and what keeps men and women and their families reenlisting in the force.

So this is a moment of crisis, a real testing for the volunteer force. They've got to replace those troops in Iraq.

That's not my plan. My plan is to change the strategy overall. In the first place, we need to change the leadership at the top. We need an international organization...

O'BRIEN: You say NATO, hand it off to NATO.

CLARK: NATO would do the military side. But above NATO would be a political organization, like we did in Bosnia that's been so successful there. Bring in a number of nations. Have a non-American in charge of the political development. Let the Iraqis have control over their own affairs just as rapidly as possible. You know, it took us seven years to write a U.S. constitution and we wouldn't have liked it if a Frenchman had come here and occupied the country in the name of the king of France saying well, we've helped these colonials get their freedom from Britain but, you know, they're not ready to govern themselves. Let's make them write a constitution first.

O'BRIEN: You think Paul Bremmer is not doing a good job?

CLARK: Well, I think it's the fact that it's an American occupation. The Iraqis want American assistance, but as long as it's an American occupation, it incentivizes resistance to the Americans.

As far as the forces on the ground are concerned, what we need to be doing is we need to be changing the force mix. What we want is the Iraqis themselves to take over the stability functions -- guarding facilities, working the borders and so forth. The Americans should be smaller in number, a more agile force, intelligence driven, to go after the terrorists and the insurgents before they strike.

O'BRIEN: The administration has said similar things, we want to see more Iraqi military brought up to speed and we want to see more Iraqi military being out there doing the actual work.

CLARK: Well, I hope they'll take this plan because you win these wars not at the point of a bayonet, but you win them at the top by taking away the incentive your adversary has to fight. To change that incentive in Iraq, you have to get rid of the idea of an American occupation there.

You also have to change the dynamic in the region. Right now, governments like Syria and Iran believe that if the United States is successful in Iraq, they might be next. We have to change that dynamic and have some kind of a constructive dialogue with those governments. Otherwise, we'll continue to draw fighters into Iraq to contest the American occupation.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the debate of the other day.

How do you think you did?

CLARK: I thought it was fun.

O'BRIEN: You stayed out of the fray when they were talking about the confederate flag. Howard Dean sort of made a tactical error, I think his campaign would say right now, and has since apologized.

What do you make of his apology, talking about the confederate flag, that he wants to be the candidate for those guys who have the confederate flag on their pickup?

CLARK: Well, there's a lot of politics in this. I'm not a politician. I'm a public servant...

O'BRIEN: Sir, you're running for president. CLARK: I'm a public servant. I've done leadership. I've served under the American flag and I'm proud of it. It's the flag I fought under. I believe this country ought to pull together and put aside the divisive symbols of the past.

O'BRIEN: So you think too much was made of the brouhaha?

CLARK: No, I'm -- not necessarily. But I'm from the South. I understand what people are like in the South. What we want to do is we want to move forward into the future. We want to pull this country together. This is a unique time in American politics because what you're seeing here is, in Iraq, is a failure of the president and the Republican Party and their reliance on patriotism as a unifying theme. They've led us wrongly into a war and I think Americans are beginning to realize this.

We need to pull the country together in a different way to make ourselves secure. And that's the leadership I'm asking to provide.

O'BRIEN: A speech made in New Hampshire Monday night, you said that there was a memo that was circulating within the administration after 9/11 which talked about overturning the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. Did you see this memo? Do you know that, in fact, this memo exists?

CLARK: Well, the people that told me about it would not have told me about it had it not existed. Now, what's happened to it since, I don't know. But it's been the subject of the sort of neo- conservative talk network for some time. And the president's obliquely referred to it.

One of the things that's most disturbing and should worry America a lot is we gave George W. Bush a blank check in the summer of -- fall of 2002, and he took us to war in Iraq. We still don't know what his real strategy is for the Middle East. He talks about democracy. But, you know, it's real hard to impose democracy. It's, it has to come naturally. You have to get out of the way and let it emerge.

That's one of our problems in Iraq. And we're looking elsewhere, at Syria and Iran. We're not going to be successful in this region if we think we can impose it with Stealth bombers or troops on the ground. It has to come from the hearts of the people.

O'BRIEN: Presidential candidate Wesley Clark, nice to see you.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

CLARK: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 6, 2003 - 08:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The situation in Iraq has been a focus in the presidential campaign of Democratic General Wesley Clark. The retired general pushing a four point post-war plan. He's scheduled to deliver a major policy speech today in South Carolina. But before he does that, he joins us this morning.
Nice to see you, General Clark.

Thanks for joining us.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (D), (RET.) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Soledad.

Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Iraq. Word from the Pentagon, of course, as you well know, 100,000, potentially, new troops, fresh troops being brought in to relieve some of the folks who are already in Iraq.

How do you think that fits in with your four point plan that you're going to sort of flesh out a little bit more today?

CLARK: Well, this rotation that the Pentagon is planning has to occur because these troops that they're replacing have already been in Iraq for a year. This is a volunteer force and the volunteer force is under tremendous stress right now. In fact, the latest moves by the Pentagon to take away funding on bases for schools, to take away commissary privileges, strike at the very heart of what makes the military distinctive and what keeps men and women and their families reenlisting in the force.

So this is a moment of crisis, a real testing for the volunteer force. They've got to replace those troops in Iraq.

That's not my plan. My plan is to change the strategy overall. In the first place, we need to change the leadership at the top. We need an international organization...

O'BRIEN: You say NATO, hand it off to NATO.

CLARK: NATO would do the military side. But above NATO would be a political organization, like we did in Bosnia that's been so successful there. Bring in a number of nations. Have a non-American in charge of the political development. Let the Iraqis have control over their own affairs just as rapidly as possible. You know, it took us seven years to write a U.S. constitution and we wouldn't have liked it if a Frenchman had come here and occupied the country in the name of the king of France saying well, we've helped these colonials get their freedom from Britain but, you know, they're not ready to govern themselves. Let's make them write a constitution first.

O'BRIEN: You think Paul Bremmer is not doing a good job?

CLARK: Well, I think it's the fact that it's an American occupation. The Iraqis want American assistance, but as long as it's an American occupation, it incentivizes resistance to the Americans.

As far as the forces on the ground are concerned, what we need to be doing is we need to be changing the force mix. What we want is the Iraqis themselves to take over the stability functions -- guarding facilities, working the borders and so forth. The Americans should be smaller in number, a more agile force, intelligence driven, to go after the terrorists and the insurgents before they strike.

O'BRIEN: The administration has said similar things, we want to see more Iraqi military brought up to speed and we want to see more Iraqi military being out there doing the actual work.

CLARK: Well, I hope they'll take this plan because you win these wars not at the point of a bayonet, but you win them at the top by taking away the incentive your adversary has to fight. To change that incentive in Iraq, you have to get rid of the idea of an American occupation there.

You also have to change the dynamic in the region. Right now, governments like Syria and Iran believe that if the United States is successful in Iraq, they might be next. We have to change that dynamic and have some kind of a constructive dialogue with those governments. Otherwise, we'll continue to draw fighters into Iraq to contest the American occupation.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the debate of the other day.

How do you think you did?

CLARK: I thought it was fun.

O'BRIEN: You stayed out of the fray when they were talking about the confederate flag. Howard Dean sort of made a tactical error, I think his campaign would say right now, and has since apologized.

What do you make of his apology, talking about the confederate flag, that he wants to be the candidate for those guys who have the confederate flag on their pickup?

CLARK: Well, there's a lot of politics in this. I'm not a politician. I'm a public servant...

O'BRIEN: Sir, you're running for president. CLARK: I'm a public servant. I've done leadership. I've served under the American flag and I'm proud of it. It's the flag I fought under. I believe this country ought to pull together and put aside the divisive symbols of the past.

O'BRIEN: So you think too much was made of the brouhaha?

CLARK: No, I'm -- not necessarily. But I'm from the South. I understand what people are like in the South. What we want to do is we want to move forward into the future. We want to pull this country together. This is a unique time in American politics because what you're seeing here is, in Iraq, is a failure of the president and the Republican Party and their reliance on patriotism as a unifying theme. They've led us wrongly into a war and I think Americans are beginning to realize this.

We need to pull the country together in a different way to make ourselves secure. And that's the leadership I'm asking to provide.

O'BRIEN: A speech made in New Hampshire Monday night, you said that there was a memo that was circulating within the administration after 9/11 which talked about overturning the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. Did you see this memo? Do you know that, in fact, this memo exists?

CLARK: Well, the people that told me about it would not have told me about it had it not existed. Now, what's happened to it since, I don't know. But it's been the subject of the sort of neo- conservative talk network for some time. And the president's obliquely referred to it.

One of the things that's most disturbing and should worry America a lot is we gave George W. Bush a blank check in the summer of -- fall of 2002, and he took us to war in Iraq. We still don't know what his real strategy is for the Middle East. He talks about democracy. But, you know, it's real hard to impose democracy. It's, it has to come naturally. You have to get out of the way and let it emerge.

That's one of our problems in Iraq. And we're looking elsewhere, at Syria and Iran. We're not going to be successful in this region if we think we can impose it with Stealth bombers or troops on the ground. It has to come from the hearts of the people.

O'BRIEN: Presidential candidate Wesley Clark, nice to see you.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

CLARK: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com