History of misinformation tarnishes Clark's military record

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:                   putnik1915 <putnik1915@xxxxxxxxxxx>

---------------------------
Good article, well said.

I've been agonizing of late about what is to be done? I see repeated
recitations of "250,000 dead in Bosnia.", "10,000 dead in Kosovo.", "Mass
graves discovered 'near' Srebrenica." Self imagined and self perceived
'reality' have supplanted reality.  It is most difficult to speak to
so-called 'intellectuals', especially most self-described 'left'
intellectuals, when they insist that Clinton's 'war' against Yugoslavia and
Clark's involvement in that blatantly illegal (remember, Clinton set the
fashion for cobbling together a coalition of 'the willing' [mostly
ex-colonials powers and/or neighbors with their own agendi] and
circumventing the UNSC [knowing, as did Bush, that such approval would not
happen] attacked Yugoslavia from the airbases of one WWII opponents (Italy)
to be attacked by its WWII allies (US/UK) as well as their WWII opponents
(Germany)).

It is most difficult to dissuade those who bought into the US/HATO gang rape
of Yugoslavia, that BOTH Democrat and Republican, right AND left, bought
into the myth of a US/HATO 'humanitarian' mission.  This from people who
don't know squat about: a) the language, b) the local history, c) the social
dynamics of the region, et sim ad nauseam.  The vision of Clinton, at the
start of the bombing campaign, saying he was going to 'read up' on
Yugoslavia, brandishing a copy of Kaplan's 'Balkan Ghosts' (like somebody
saying they were reading up on the Holocaust while brandishing a copy of
'Mein Kampf'!).

Cossack

> ---------------------------
>
>  http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-clark06.html
>
> Chicago Sun Times
> History of misinformation tarnishes Clark's military record October 6,
2003
>
> BY THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
>
>
>
>
> The latest entry in the Democratic presidential candidate lineup has
> rocketed to become the top candidate within two weeks of his announcement.
> Wesley Clark is a retired general and a Rhodes scholar, and he served as
> NATO commander during the Kosovo War as well as a CNN commentator during
the
> Iraq war this spring. His words of July 11 sound like the kind of straight
> talk that could reassure Americans increasingly uncertain about the
> direction of the war in Iraq: "When I was in the military," he said, "I
took
> an oath to uphold the Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution
> that says you can mislead people."
>
> But in one astonishing statement three days before Clark announced his
> candidacy, Clark's former boss, Gen. H. Hugh Shelton, raised the most
> serious questions about Clark's military record, which is, of course, all
he
> really has to run on. Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff
> on 9/11, said: "I've known Wes a long time. I will tell you the reason he
> came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character, issues
that
> are very near and dear to my heart."
>
> According to military historian Thomas Fleming, "This is the most critical
> statement by one senior military officer on the record on the conduct of
> another in the history of the United States armed forces."
>
> Shelton is not alone in his opinion. Clark is widely disliked in the Army.
> Many commentators wondered at the time why Clark "came out of Europe
early."
> It was unheard of for Clark or any NATO commander to be relieved months
> before his tour was up and quickly retired. Now Shelton has revealed that
> the reason Clark was relieved involved issues of "integrity and
character."
> Within the military code there could be no more damning statement.
>
> There are clues to Shelton's indictment from Clark's Kosovo campaign. The
> war began after a chorus of charges that the Serbians were unleashing
> genocidal holocaust upon Kosovars, Albanians and other largely Muslim
> minorities. And the NATO commander's headquarters rapidly became an echo
of
> the "five o'clock follies" of press misinformation at Army headquarters in
> Saigon two decades earlier.
>
> Here are a few examples: There were supposed to be 100,000 prisoners
> detained by the Serbs in a soccer stadium in Pristina. An Agence France
> Presse reporter dropped by the stadium a few days later and admired its
> green grass and empty seats with the single caretaker on the site.
>
> NATO headquarters passed along Albanian allegations that Serbian victims
> were being incinerated at a Trpca mine smelter. But when interviewed by
> reporter Ben Works, NATO officers admitted they had monitored the site
> during the entire war and the smelter had never been fired up.
>
> Even the NATO bomb-damage assessment team Clark sent in after the truce
> found that instead of the several hundred Serbian tanks Clark had claimed
> were destroyed by his air war, there were only 12 and about as many
> personnel carriers. As for atrocities, according to Works, Clark's team
> found "no credible indications of large scale atrocities or any other
> pattern of smaller scale crimes against humanity."
>
> If Clark was singularly unsuccessful in his high-altitude air war on the
> Serb forces, which he had predicted would bring victory in a few days, it
> caused a lot of civilian casualties. Besides blowing up the Chinese
Embassy,
> some civilian convoys, a lot of radio and TV facilities, and an amazing
> number of chicken coops, one incident stands out. A train loaded with
> civilians was crossing a bridge near Grdelica when it was attacked by NATO
> F-15s. A dozen were killed and many wounded. In briefing the press Clark
> termed it "unfortunate." Clark ran gun camera photo footage. "You can see
if
> you are focusing on your job as a pilot how suddenly that train appeared."
> NATO was claiming their target was the bridge and the train was moving so
> fast they couldn't reinstruct the missile in time to avoid the train.
>
> Looking at the film the train does appear to suddenly jump into the frame.
> There was only one problem: According to the Ottawa Citizen's Scott
Taylor,
> the film had been doctored. The F-15s had made two passes and hit the
bridge
> the first time, knocking out the train's electrical power. On the second
> pass, they hit the train. The two segments were spliced together so it
> looked like the stationary train was moving.
>
> This is not the only time Clark suffered from the failure of monitoring
> cameras. Cameras also failed at the tragic bombing at the village of
Korisa
> which killed 87 Albanian civilians, and at the final assault on the Koresh
> compound at Waco. Eighty six civilians were killed in the assault, in
which
> 17 armored vehicles and personnel as well from the First Cavalry Division
at
> Ft. Hood commanded by Clark participated.
>
> Mistakes happen. Subordinates send up bad or intentionally skewed
> information. The fog of war makes any headquarters press communications
> difficult at best. But if Shelton and Defense Secretary Bill Cohen were
> receiving reports as misleading as the ones furnished to the press by
> Clark's headquarters it couldn't have made their task any easier.
>
> Clark is the leading Democratic candidate for president. He is also the
only
> candidate who is registered with several agencies, including the Defense
> Department, as a paid lobbyist. To avoid a possible conflict of interest,
> did he tell CNN he was a registered Defense lobbyist when he signed on as
> their on-air military commentator? According to CNN spokesman Mark Furman,
> "We did not know." When CNN fired him, Clark blamed the influence of
> President Bush, which CNN denied.
>
> Perhaps for Wesley Clark, like Bill Clinton, another brilliant Rhodes
> Scholar Arkansan who served as Clark's commander in chief, it may depend
on
> what the word "mislead" means.
>
> Thomas H. Lipscomb is chairman of the Center for the Digital Future in New
> York.
>
>
>
> Copyright C The Sun-Times Company
>




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